Fighting Their Own Battles
by Captain Quack Beard
Summary: A minimum wage fighter, a naive avenger, a sectarian seeker, and a timorous swindler discover their purpose in my first RWBY fanfiction series. (Obviously contains OC's)
1. Blue Trailer

"Alright keep your eyes on the ball, sweetheart" chimed Cye Lureri as he swept three different cups around on a table on the sidewalk of a street at blinding speed.

"Oh my" blushed a middle aged woman at his comment.

Cye Lureri is a 17 year old teenager who dons a blue button up shirt, that opens up to reveal the top of his chest. He also wears a black vest around it with brown pants. He has a medium build with defined facial features. His medium length sky blue hair was parted in the middle displaying usual treatment. Cye often wore a smirk on his face, displaying much confidence, which was important in his "profession".

"Now, which one has the ball?" asked Cye as he finished shuffling and put his hands on the table.

"Uhhhh, that one?" guessed the woman pointing to the cup on the right.

"Ahhhh, sorry about that" said Cye as he raised the cup to reveal nothing. "How about another round?"

"I'm afraid that's all the money I have" the woman said, surprised at the fact.

"Welp, better luck next time" Cye said as he waved to the woman walking away. He turned towards the table and grabbed the lien that the woman had wagered.

"Looks like no food tonight" he stated disappointedly as he slid the lien cards into his back pocket.

"Oh! I almost forgot" Cye said as he pulled the ball out of his other back pocket and immediately dropped it.

"Darn it" he said as he watched the ball hit the ground with a *clink* and roll over to a sewer grate and then fall in. Cye sighed as he closed his eyes, held his breath, and concentrated. He then felt the hard exterior of the ball materialize in his hand. Exhaling, he looked at the ball, now with a new crack across it, and placed it back into his vest pocket.

"Suckers fall for it all the time" he chuckled to himself as he began to fold up his performing table which doubled as briefcase. Once finished, he placed the cups into it, along with various other items like a deck of cards, another pair of similar clothes, and his weapons, a pair of sky blue crescent knives.

"Is that so?" came an unknown female voice behind him.

Cye immediately stopped his packing up and turned to face the unknown person. Standing in front of him was a girl, possibly a bit older than him. She had a purple mohawk and piercing blue eyes. She wore a light gray shirt with a tattered vest around it. She also wore faded and ripped pants.

"Uhhh" Cye said hesitantly for he previously thought he was alone.

"I'm Vi" the girl stated, extending her hand to shake. "and I couldn't help but overhear you".

"Well I'm sure you would never fall for it, you look like you're too smart honey" Cye answered as he shook her hand smirking while raising an eyebrow.

"Yeahhhhh, no. That's not what I meant." Vi said slightly disgusted at his advances. "I meant your food situation."

"Oh yeah, I didn't do as well as I could have today, cause I was lost in your eyes" Cye said while still smirking.

"Okay now, I want to help you, but if I'm going to, you need to stop...that" she said clearly irritated.

"Alright, so what is this about helping me?" Cye said leaning against a wall of a building.

"Well, I recently learned a little bit of information that might be useful to you." Vi said as she leaned against the wall next to him. "You see, there is a shipment of dust coming in tonight to a warehouse about a mile away from here, from the Schnee Dust Company."

"Listen girlie, I'm no crook. I'm not gonna steal some dust from someone, let alone the Schnee's!" Cye said walking away from Vi and resumed packing things away back into his briefcase.

"Are you kidding me? That family is loaded! They won't even notice if one or two crates of dust went missing! Do you have any idea how much you can sell it for?! You wouldn't have to work another day in your life!" Vi stated obviously frustrated.

"I'm not scared of stealing from some big shots in Atlas, I'm scared of what they'll do to me if I get caught! Why are you even telling me this? We just met!" Cye said stopping his task to turn around and speak to her face to face.

Vi sighed heavily, and began to walk away before stopping herself and turning her head back to him "Do what you want with the information" she said "just consider it…an act of good will."

Cye looked down, pondering what she just said "What do you mea-…."he stopped himself when he realized that the girl had disappeared.

Cye decided to finish packing up his things and began to walk down to the street, gazing at the street lamps lighting up as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. He eventually made his way to an alley which he called home. Tossing his briefcase to the side, he threw himself onto various cardboard boxes, disturbing various rodents nearby in the process.

"Not working another day in my life does sound appealing" Cye said as he turned to lay on his back and look up at the stars.

"I mean what _is_ the worst they could do to me? Lock me up? Torture me? End me? Actually those are pretty bad" he said having the sudden realization.

"But it's not like I would get caught…right?" Running his hands through his hair he whispered "Cye, you're an idiot, you're a complete moron. Don't listen to her; she's just some crazy girl….I hope." Quietly he sat up and reached for his weapon. "Well, it's not like things could get worse."

Cye stood up and looked towards the shattered moon "Please let her be right" he prayed. Walking out of the alley, he noticed the silent streets, barely any people occupied it.

Making his way towards the warehouse, he noticed several guards lining the streets. In an attempt to not look suspicious, he whistled jovially and waved at the guards who maintained apathetic expressions.

The warehouse had at least thirty giant crates filled with dust just outside of the entrance. Unfortunately for Cye, for every crate there were at least three guards. Turning his attention away from the entrance, he made his way around to the back of warehouse, where windows were placed about fifteen feet up. Cye closed his eyes and began to concentrate hard. He felt his body dematerialize and rematerialize on the other side of the wall. Cye collapsed exhausted, not cautious of the sound he would make. After a few minutes of resting and catching his breath, Cye looked up and saw endless shelves of dust crates. Fortunately for him, only the lights in front of the warehouse were lit, leaving him safely surrounded in darkness behind a shelf of dust. Various voices of workers and guards filled the room, creating an unintelligible ocean of noise. Silently waiting in the back, Cye heard the loud shutter of the door to the warehouse close and the lights turn off. Still hearing muffled voices outside, he waited until they became faint and then eventually disappeared.

Carefully he maneuvered himself around the shelf that had previously been his hiding spot. He gazed up in awe of the magnificence of the entire scene. Sure, he enjoyed dust, but the profit he could make off of just a single shelf was what truly filled him with joy. No more worrying about rationing half a slice of bread. No more angry participants in his game of deception. No more anything.

Walking over to a shelf, Cye pulled a crate down to the floor and opened it up. Completely filled to the brim with dust, the sight was breathtaking. Suddenly the windows on the side of the building broke open as various guards repelled into the warehouse. Cye looked around as he saw an innumerable number of guards wearing clean white uniforms with white body armor with the Schnee family logo emblazoned on the back.

"Put your hands up and step away from the dust!" commanded a rather large guard.

"What?! How did you know I was here? I didn't set off an alarm!" Cye demanded.

The guard laughed arrogantly. "A little birdie told us" he answered boastfully.

Cye sighed heavily as he raised his hands in the air, surrendering himself to the Schnee guards.

"It'll only cost you a bit of lien! How about you sir? Madame?" Cye shouted as he hopelessly attempted to market his business.

"I take it that it didn't go well" said a familiar voice. Cye immediately turned around to be greeted by the face of a traitor.

"You! You set me up! What is your problem?!" He cried as he ran over to Vi full of hate.

"Me? I had no idea that that would happen." Vi said in a mocking tone, filling Cye with even more rage.

"You knew this would happen! You called the guards on me!" He accused.

"How dare you make such a claim. Besides, what happened to you?" Vi said.

Feeling the tight pull of handcuffs, Cye cursed himself under his breath. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted her!"

A guard walked over holding a larger sized Scroll displaying a connecting video call. It eventually connected and showed a very clean cut man, in a white suit. He had slicked back white hair and a bushy white moustache. After a moment of silence the man on the screen cleared his throat and said "So this is the thief that I was informed of?"

Cye decided to stay silent, as he did not want to get himself into more trouble by threatening the unknown man before him.

"Young man, we here at Schnee Dust Company have a reputation to uphold; and we can't very well let you go and tarnish that. You see, people are doubting us and our methods, but these are troubling times. We have been victims of attacks and theft and in the process, are forced to follow some less than desirable paths" the man said.

"Why are you even telling me this? You already caught me, just get on with it" replied Cye bluntly.

"This is just an explanation. You see, some of these less than desirable paths include making deals and alliances with a few questionable organizations and companies" the man answered. "You were just a… test run per say. Just a mere pawn to show that we can trust our new partners, and you played your part perfectly."

"So now what? Are you going to kill me?" Cye asked.

"Kill you? Who do you think we are? The White Fang? No, you will be fined on the grounds of grand theft" the man replied.

"Grand theft? Huh, serious stuff" Vi said as patted Cye on the shoulder.

"Don't pity me! You're the one who set me up!" Cye said jerking away from her.

"It wasn't my doing, they were just orders" she defended. "How much exactly are grand theft charges anyways?"

Cye hesitated before speaking "Couple thousand lien…"

"Wow, how do you plan on obtaining that?" she inquired.

"I don't have a clue" he said bowing his head in shame.

"Well, I might be able to help you out there" Vi said.

"Oh really?! Just like you _helped_ me out last time?!" Cye said standing up in annoyance.

"You see, our deal with the Schnee company is over. This is just another act of good will" Vi stated standing up next to him and looking Cye in the eye. "Besides, I don't think this _business_ alone will get you thousands of lien" She said gesturing to his table, still vacant.

"Fine, what did you have in mind? Hiding me in a box?" Cye replied folding his arms sarcastically.

"No, although that does sound inviting…"Vi whispered under her breath.

"How about we loan you the money, and you pay us back in a while?" She offered while pulling out a large stack of lien from her back pocket.

Cye decided to weigh his options. On one hand, he'll be making the same mistake all over again. On the other hand, if he doesn't accept the offer, he'll get thrown in jail or worse. Suddenly a new idea popped into his head.

"Sure thing, I'll pay you back as soon as possible" he replied with a sudden change of attitude and a smirk on his face.

"Great, now just pay us back as soon as possible" Vi said beginning to walk away.

"Absolutely...absolutely" he said under his breath, clearly plotting something.

Cye made his way back to his alley and gathered the rest of his very few belonging, putting this into his briefcase.

"It's time for the con artist to con the con artist who first conned the con artist" he said slowly, trying to work out the current situation in his head.

"I'm getting out of Vale tomorrow." He said laying down on his cardboard box bed. He picked up the rather large stack of lien and gazed at it. "This'll easily get me to farthest parts of Mistral, and from there on I lay low."

Cye looked up at the night sky, full of stars, and the shattered moon, as he drifted off to sleep for his last night in Vale.

His eyes opened quickly to see an orange sky, slowly transitioning to purple. "Wait WHAT?!" Cye glanced down at his watch to see that it was currently late in the evening. "How did I oversleep?!" He shouted in disbelief.

"I can't miss this!" he said standing up and beginning to sprint to the nearest airship station.

He eventually reached his destination, completely out of breath. He looked up at the enormous two story building, but despite the size, there was a distinct lack of citizens.

(Optional but recommended music here)

Disregarding that fact, Cye made his way up the stairs, two at a time, before he heard a voice that made him freeze.

"What are you doing there, buddy?" called an all too familiar voice.

".…" he hesitated before turning around and coming face to face, again, with Vi. But something was different about her. To her side now swung a solid metal ball, at least twice the size of his head, connected to a chain that wrapped several times around her waist. "Crazy right? I was just here to pick up my parents, they're flying in! Anyways, I should go get them, nice seeing ya!" Cye said with a cheerful demeanor and fake smile.

Cye turned around and took another step towards the door before it was crushed by a thrown metal ball. He turned his head back around to see Vi holding the end of the chain attached to the ball, slowly pulling it back. "I'm not an idiot Cye. You're escaping your problems by leaving Vale. That won't happen." Vi stated flatly. Her previous condescending attitude was gone, replaced by a lifeless expression.

Cye sighed as he unclipped his crescent knives from his belt. "Why can't anything go right for me?"

He dashed forward hoping to end the fight quickly until he felt himself being picked up by his shirt and thrown into a wall. Shaking away rubble, Cye opened his eyes only to see the metal ball hurling towards his head. At the last moment he dove to the side just missing the lethal shot. "WHAT WAS THAT?! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!" he demanded. Vi did not respond as she pulled back her weapon. "Alright then." He muttered as he clenched his weapon, causing the blades of his crescent knives to shift 90 degrees, now making the weapon a right angle. He held down a button on the handle firing out numerous bullets in rapid succession.

Vi straight up, about ten feet in the air, dodging most of the bullets fired, but Cye noticed and adjusted his fire. However, she also launched her weapon down towards him, forcing Cye to roll to a safe distance. The ball smashed into the ground, reducing several steps of the building to dust and even causing Cye to stumble from the aftershock.

Landing back harshly, Vi created a crater where she stood. She reeled back her grip on the chain, so that only her hands held on to the last few links. With those in hand, she began to spin around, using centrifugal force to increase speed and power. Cye watched her do so and looked for an opening, but it was quite difficult, as the ball just seemed to be an endless gray blur in front of him, moving in a circular pattern. Throwing away any inhibitions, Cye leapt forward realizing that if he could get into Vi's inner circle, she would have no defense against him. Time began to slow down as he jumped forward, and watched the ball come closer and closer until it made contact with his side. Pain shot through his body as he rocketed across the area, crashing to the ground. He struggled to breathe as he felt a foot atop his chest. Cye then felt himself being picked up by the collar and he opened his eyes to see Vi standing there, holding him.

"We tried to help you. But you go and decide to double cross us" she said. Cye could only cough and in the process of doing so, spat on her. Vi frowned a slammed him back into the ground, head first. She began to walk away and Cye saw the days' past few events. He remembered his street show. He remembered that no one could ever figure him out. He remembered his first meeting with Vi. But most importantly, he remembered being set up, and being made a fool of.

Suddenly feeling new energy and power Cye stood up and proclaimed "You deserved it. No one crosses Cye Lureri." Vi turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Is that right?" "Yeah." Cye said simply before disappearing.

"What?! Where did you go?" Vi demanded. "Right here" A voice came from behind her. Cye wound back his arm and punched Vi directly in the sternum. She stumbled backwards as he began his next attack and uppercut her chin. She staggered further back, dazed from what just happened. Finally, he placed his hands on her shoulders and leapt forward, with his knee outstretched which connected to her stomach. The sheer force knocked Vi flat on her back, unconscious, with a loud thud from her weapon.

Cye scoffed and fixed his hair "Like I said, _no one_ crosses Cye Lureri." He closed his eyes and lay down, completely exhausted from the battle. Right as he exhaled he felt his shoulder suddenly crush under an unfortunately familiar ball. "AAH!" he screamed as his eyes shot open to see Vi standing above him. "We're not through with you" she said as she began to twirl the sphere in a circular pattern vertically. She wrapped the twirling chain around her neck and flicked her neck quickly in order to maximize the weapon's energy and speed. Cye could not react as the ball smashed into his leg. "AGH!" He cried out, tears beginning to form around his eyes. "Looks like you won't be going anywhere for much longer" she said as she wound up her weapon again.

"Wait! Please! I'm sorry! I'll pay you back! Double!" He shouted, praying that she would listen. Vi stopped her twirling and pondered the thought for a moment. After a bit, she chuckled, "Alright Lureri, you have two weeks." Cye breathed a gigantic sigh of relief. "But, if you don't pay up. I won't be so forgiving next time" she threatened, smirking. "Until then" she said walking away.

As soon as she was out of sight, Cye examined his wounds; nothing seemed to be broken, but seriously sprained. He felt like his world was over, he had two weeks to live. That is, until he felt a paper smack into the side of his face. He peeled it off and studied it. It was a flyer that read "Beacon Academy: Train to fight the creatures of Grimm and become a hunter or huntress! Admissions Now." This was it, his ticket out. He would be safe; the hunters would protect him if he was a student. Vi's organization wouldn't dare challenge an entire academy teeming with skilled hunters and huntresses. Cye picked himself off the ground, with much difficulty, and made his way to the nearest registration building.


	2. Yellow 1 Trailer

"And stay out!" shouted a man in a clean black vest as he picked up and threw a teenage girl out the door who landed hard on her backside.

"Oomph. Your club was the worst anyways Junior! What kind of business doesn't let their employees break things?!" the girl demanded.

"All of them! Don't come back girlie!" Junior shouted back, slamming the door in her face.

"I didn't want to anyways" she muttered, picking up a rock and throwing it at the club's window. The window shattered with a *CRASH*. "Uh oh" she said simply realizing her mistake and decided to run away to a nearby alley.

This girl is Mika Sol. Mika is 16 years old who has a medium frame and long blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail that reached the middle of her back. Out of her hair poked two fluffy white rabbit ears. She had thin facial features and cold blue eyes. She still wore her old uniform as a bartender at Junior's club: a yellow buttoned shirt with a black vest, black bow tie, black slacks and waist apron. Finally, as protection, clipped to her side was a .44 magnum revolver. Extending from the underside of the barrel of the gun was a silver blade, at least a foot long.

"Great. Now I need a new job." She said sitting down and resting her head in her hands. "Maybe I could go back and work for Tukson? Wait, no, I destroyed a couple shelves of his…. What abou- no…they hate me…." Mika sat there in the alley for a while, coming up with ideas but soon shooting them down for one reason and one reason only. She had destroyed their property or personnel.

"What am I supposed to do? It's not my fault everyone gets so annoying. I just wish there was some kind of outle-" she said but was cut off by a stampede of footsteps and a thunder of voices. She looked to the side and saw countless people running and shouting. What was going on?

Mika decided to go and figure it out and made her way through the dark alley, tripping on various obstacles in the process. Once out, she gazed over to the amassing crowd of people all forming in a giant circle. Still curious she walked over but was unable to see through the tightly packed wall of observers. All she could hear was cheers, objects hitting the ground, and fighting? Forcing her way through by means of elbowing and shoving other onlookers out of the way, Mika finally reached the inner circle. To her surprise, she saw two burly men duking it out, smashing each other in the face and torso while lien cards rained down signaling bets from different people.

Confused and dazed by the sudden event, Mika suddenly felt herself being shoved into the center of the action. She stumbled forward and smacked directly into one of the men who quickly threw her to the side causing Mika to fall down.

"Watch it, girl!" he shouted at her.

"You watch it! Jerk!" she yelled back at the man.

"What'd you call me?!" the man demanded, turning around to face Mika and threw a punch. Taking a step to the side, Mika avoided the punch and retaliated by gripping the man's wrist and throwing him over her shoulder. He landed with a hard *thud* and suddenly Mika found her arm being grabbed by the second man who threw her off to the side. Quickly realizing her inability to recover in time, Mika activated her semblance. Time began to slow down as she shifted her weight and positioned herself upright midair so that she landed on her feet, skidding back a couple inches. The second man charged her but she was ready for him and jumped above him and quickly turned around to deliver a swift roundhouse to his side, which caused him to crumple to the ground.

"That's it you faunus trash!" said the first man who stood up, pulling out a sword from his side. He ran up to Mika quickly and slashed downwards with all his might but was blocked. Mika held her weapon horizontally, intersecting the attack. Pushing her weapon up with a great surge of strength caused the man to stumble backwards dropping his sword in the process. Mika lunged forwards with her blade, stopping mere inches from the man's throat.

She suddenly realized the current situation and looked at the numerous shocked faces of onlookers. She had forgotten about the crowd and noticed the deafening silence that had replaced the previously loud and boisterous atmosphere. Mika was unsure of what would happen, would they hate her cause she had ruined their entertainment? Would they attack her? But their response was different from what she thought; instead, the crowd erupted into cheers and applause and lien cards rained down from the sky. She then lowered her weapon from the man's vital area and gave him a stern look, which caused him to promptly run away.

Mika felt amazing, the praise, the glory, and for once in her life, no one was mad that she fought. She threw her hand up in the air which caused even more excitement to come from the crowd.

"Two hundred and forty-one, two hundred and forty two" Mika said jovially as she counted out the money that she had picked up after the scuffle. After the cheering crowd had lifted her in the air, she went back to the area and scavenged the leftover lien cards, now counting the large stack against the wall.

"That was quite the show you put on there" came an unfamiliar voice.

Mika turned her head to address the voice and saw a young man, not much older than she was. He had a very thin frame and thus looked quite weak. Contributing to this, he also held a cane in his hand and walked with a limp. He wore black sunglasses and had short shaggy black hair that reached his chin. He also wore a gray sweater-vest over a black button up shirt and grey slacks.

"Thanks, do I know you? Are you here to get someone's money back?" Mika said unsure of the stranger, and slowly inched her hand to her side, where her weapon was currently located.

"No, we've never met, and no I'm no thug, just a fan of your work." He said, playfully raising his hand in defense.

"A fan?" she asked moving her hand away from her weapon, seeing as he posed no obvious threat to her.

"Yes that's correct" He replied with a smile. "You see, I observed your talents from the fight just recently and I wanted to offer you a job. That is, unless you already have one."

"A job? What kind of job?" Mika inquired, still unsure of the stranger.

"Well, I represent an…organization that is in, let's just say, a less than desirable position. We are having some rough times, but I have a plan to fix everything. It'll make us rich and it'll make you rich, all you have to do is a little bit of fighting. So what do you say?" The man answered, extending his hand to make the deal official.

"….I'll hear you out" Mika said after a moment of hesitation. She reached forward and shook the stranger's hand.

"My name is Charlie by the way" he said, placing his hand on his chest to introduce himself.

"Mika. Mika Sol." She said as they walked off together.

The bustling crowd of the café made it difficult for Mika to concentrate. She rubbed her temples, trying to soothe the headache that currently plagued her due to a lack of sleep. She was currently sitting at a small metal table that was placed near a large window that displayed the streets filled with numerous people all going about their daily lives. She even saw some low life trying to swindle people out of their lien by playing some sort of cup game. Across from her sat Charlie with his legs crossed, leaned back in the chair sipping a cup of coffee.

"So, ya want to run your plan by me again?" Mika requested placing her hands back on the table.

Charlie let out a small sigh as he unfolded his legs and leaned forward. "As I said before, money is definitely an issue with my organization and I. When observing your impressive combat skills, I noticed that you would be perfect for a sort of, competition. While there is not one here in Vale, the closest one, both time and location-wise, would be the Mistral Regional Tournament. It will be simplicity itself, all you have to do is beat a few other hunters and huntresses and then you get the prize money and a brand deal with some cereal I think?"

"Right. Simple. I'm sure these hunters and huntresses will be pushovers" she said surely.

"There ya go, confidence will go a long way" Charlie said snatching his cane up which had previously been leaning against the table. He stood up and pat Mika on the shoulder "Now come on, I've already signed you up."

Mika finished her beverage and nodded, stood up and followed Charlie to the nearest airship station.

The sprawling swamps and vast marshes of Mistral were all that Mika could see from the airship, leaving her with an unpleasant feeling to say the least. Small and pitiful villages also littered the area. It was her first time in this new land, and so far, it was not exactly living up to her expectations. That is, until they reached the location of the tournament. It was a thriving metropolis which greatly contrasted the rest of the land. Skyscrapers lined the streets, myriads of people navigated through the city, and a multitude of other airships flew by. Putting her hands on glass of the airship, Mika admired the magnificent view.

Within a few minutes, Mika felt the airship descend into the bustling city. She turned to look at Charlie who was sitting down engrossed in some book. When the ship had finally landed, she ran the exit, eager to see the new sights. Charlie followed slowly behind her, the book still in front of his face. Lowering the novel, he looked at Mika who was currently turning in circles so that she could absorb all of her surroundings in awe. A rare sight indeed, as she was even smiling while doing so.

"Well? What do you think of Mistral?" Charlie inquired chuckling to himself.

Mika quickly regained her composure. "It's all right, we're not here for the sights though. Let's just go to the tournament and show some hunters what I can do."

"Very well. Now I will warn you, despite Mistral's charming city appearance, it does have its dark side. You should be careful."

"Dark side? Like what, White Fang activity?" Mika asked turning to him.

"Well yes, the White Fang is a large threat, but I was referring to something else. Mistral has a large gambling ring that you should definitely not get mixed up in." Charlie answered quietly, as if to make sure no one else heard him but Mika. "But you shouldn't have to worry about that. We're here for the tournament and its winnings. Quick, easy, and simple for you." He quickly said afterwards, raising his voice to normal.

"Right, all I have to do is win." Mika stated looking into the distance. She then looked back at Charlie, into his eyes, although they were covered by sunglasses. "Charlie… thank you. You're one of the first people to believe in me. I don't know what I would be doing if you hadn't talked with me."

"Of course, now come on, we're gonna be late" he said placing a shoulder on Mika, smiling.

The large coliseum-esque tournament arena attracted a massive amount of people. Seats filled up rapidly around the stage where the fights would take place. The flood of voices were soon silenced by a microphone cracking and a loud boisterous voice came on.

 **"Welcome! To the Annual Mistral Regional Tournament!"** announced the speaker. Cheers proceeded from the crowd. **"This year is a very special year! Not only will the winner receive a hefty sum of lien, but a unique advertisement deal with our generous sponsors at Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes! Now to introduce our returning champion, Pyrrha Nikos! If she wins this year's tournament, it'll be a new record, four straight years! Now who's ready?!"** More cheers came from the crowd in response.

Mika sighed backstage as she cleaned her weapon with a cloth that she had produced from her apron. Despite her various scuffles in the past, she was a bit nervous with the large crowd. What if she loses? What if she looks stupid in front of the entire crowd? No, that's not going to happen. She won't let it.

 **"Our first match is…Mika Sol vs Van Duva!"** came a muffled announcer voice.

"Showtime" Mika said clipping her gun to her belt and placing the cloth back in her apron.

Walking out in front of the cheering crowd was deafening. Mika winced and flattened her rabbit ears in a desperate attempt to quiet the event. Across the arena walked a man dressed in all white knight armor minus the helmet. At each of his sides was a longsword. Although, something was off about him, for he was obviously trying to hold back laughter.

 **"3!"** came the announcer. Mika lowered her hand near her hip while her opponent was unsuccessful in his attempts to maintain his composure. He burst out laughing, holding his stomach which left Mika confused.

 **"2!"** the speaker counted.

Tilting her head, Mika spoke "Is there a problem?"

In between gasps of air, Van spoke in short phrases "What are…you…wearing?!"

 **"1!"** the announcer neared. Mika clenched her fist and pulled back her hand, away from her revolver.

 **"Fight!"**

"Oh my god! Are you going to fight or take my order?!" gasped the young man.

"That's it!" Mika shouted as she ran at a breakneck speed towards her opponent. Not realizing that the match had started, Van left his weapons sheathed at his sides. Leaping in the air, Mika delivered a devastating jump kick directly to his face. Making a sharp *crack* noise her opponent rocketed across the stage and straight into the out of bounds area.

 **"Uhhh, our first round winner is Mika Sol!"** stated the announcer, slightly surprised. The audience cheered nonetheless, despite the quick first match. The shower of admiration from crowd was the real reason Mika was here. It filled her with jubilation and pride. She felt invincible, nothing could stop her.

The following matches proved to be nothing more than scraps for Mika. Her opponents proved to be all arrogant kids that she was more than willing to shut down. Although there was something odd about each fight. When she reached the backstage after each match, she noticed that Charlie was always speaking with some men in clean suits. And every time he noticed her, he would quickly put something in his back pocket, but she shrugged it off, probably just some friends.

But before she knew it, she had climbed the ladder of the tournament until she had reached the finals. Only one person in the way between her and greatness.

(Optional but recommended music here: watch?v=3fxq7kqyWO8&t=0m10s)

" **And now we move on to our final match of the event! First, hailing from Vale, we have Mika Sol! And now, our returning champ, hailing from Sanctum Academy, we have Pyrrha Nikos!"**

Across from Mika walked a girl of about the same age as her. She wore golden Spartan armor and a golden circlet which encompassed her long red hair. She seemed to carry herself with a sense of purpose and pride, an easy opponent.

" **Fighters are you ready?!"** asked the speaker. **"BEGIN!"**

Mika drew her revolver and rushed down Pyrrha who was in a battle stance, ready to defend. Mika drug her blade along the ground, causing sparks to flicker from it, and within seconds was upon Pyrrha. She slashed her weapon upwards and…missed? Seeing an opening, Pyrrha attempted to slash Mika but was stopped by her blocking in a perpendicular fashion. However, Mika did not foresee a roundhouse kick from Pyrrha which connected to her shoulder.

Forced to rethink her strategy, Mika jumped back, putting distance between her and her opponent. 'This Pyrrha girl is good' she thought. 'But I should end this quickly.' Flicking the barrel of her revolver and pulling back the hammer, Mika aimed in the direction of Pyrrha. She smirked as she fired all six of her shots, which were directly on target…but something was wrong. There was no sound of bullets hitting armor or even her shield, just silence. What happened? Those should have been direct hits. Mika stood there dazed , which Pyrrha took advantage of. Pyrrha charged Mika slashing her spear across Mika's shoulders and immediately reversed her movement and struck Mika across the face with her elbow, causing her to stumble back. Pyrrha then threw her shield which smashed into Mika's stomach and knocked her on her back.

'I can't think straight' Mika thought as she landed. 'What do I do? How is this possible? I have to do something!' Mika jumped up from her previous position and ran at full speed towards Pyrrha. In her dash she activated her semblance, and the world around her slowed. She brought her sword above her head and brought it down above Pyrrha but she noticed that it moved to the side, out of range just slightly. This caused her to stumble forward and fall flat on her face. Mika shook her head in an attempt to regain composure. After a few seconds she noticed something, something about the crowd. The crowd around her was no longer cheering for her…they were laughing...at her. Mika felt a hot wave of shame and embarrassment envelop her. Why were they laughing? This wasn't funny. She looked over to Pyrrha who had a small smile. Did she think this was funny?! Had Mika not even been a challenge for her? Just entertainment?! 'I refuse to be amusement for her! I'll show her!' Mika thought as she gritted her teeth in anger. Mika once again raced towards Pyrrha with her weapon at her side, prepared to stab. But this time, Pyrrha did not defend, block, or retaliate. Instead, Pyrrha jumped in the air and landed behind Mika, who quickly realized her mistake. Pyrrha had been standing at the edge of the fighting arena which Mika just ran off and into the out of bounds area. A buzzer rang signifying the end of the round.

" **Ladies and gentleman we have a winner and new record! Four consecutive victories, everybody, Pyrrha Nikos!"** The announcer stated as he walked over to Pyrrha and rose her arm in victory. **"What will you do now Miss Nikos?"** he asked handing her a microphone.

" **Well, uhh, I will actually be going to Vale to attend Beacon Academy to become a Huntress"** Pyrrha replied happily.

Mika punched the wall in anger, making an indent. She was currently walking backstage to meet Charlie but suddenly stopped and hid behind a corner when she heard his voice talking.

"Pleasure doing business with you sir" she heard him say jovially. Mika rounded the corner immediately and saw him pocketing a large sum of lien. Charlie turned around surprised to see Mika "Oh, what's going on Mika?"

Mika marched up to him "No Charlie, I think I should be asking _you_ the questions. Who was that and what are you doing with that much lien?!"

Charlie sighed and smiled "Well, now that it's over, I can drop this façade. That, was a friend who bet on you to win the match."

"Wait, that means you bet against me?!" Mika demanded.

"Well of course, you're a sloppy and pathetic excuse for a fighter who made it to the finals by sheer luck." Charlie said leaning forward on his cane.

"Then why am I here?! Why did you take me here?!" Mika exclaimed.

"Because, my organization needed the money, and like I said before, Mistral has a rather large gambling ring. After you won your first few matches, it was easy to make quick cash."

"YOU USED ME" Mika shouted.

"Of course, don't take it personally though, I could've found any filthy faunus who thought they could make it in life." Charlie said turning around and walking away.

"Sure, you could have, but you chose me, that was your mistake." Mika said unclipping her weapon. Charlie sighed again as he pressed a button on his cane which made it break into separate parts connected by a single wire, a whip. He cracked it in front of him, making a sizeable crack in the floor. Mika ran towards him and Charlie attempted to attack her with the whip but stopped when it was grabbed midair by Mika. She pulled with all her strength forcing Charlie to stumble forward. She grabbed his face and slammed it into the nearby wall, knocking him out.

"NEVER use me again" she said turning his back to him and walking away.

"I'm going to become a hunter at Beacon Academy, just like that Pyrrha and show her that I'm a force to be reckoned with." Mika said softly.

"That's great Mika, but table four needs their orders taken" said her manager.

"Right away sir" she said quickly walking across the café to speak with the customers.


	3. Yellow 2 Trailer

The leaves crunched under the footsteps of Sunny Keusik. She had just finished basic combat training at Signal Academy and was currently walking back to her hometown in Vale.

Sunny, a 17 year old teenager, had a slender build, wearing a long white scarf above a yellow tank top. She had short blonde hair in an undercut with side swept bangs. Her eyes were a brilliant light blue and wore two small silver hooped earrings on each ear. She commonly had a bright smile on her face due to her naturally pleasant demeanor. Finally, a large golden cylinder with a rod extending from it was wrapped around her shoulder by means of a leather strap.

She looked up in the clear blue sky as she reminisced about her life before hunting.

"Wake up Sunny!" came a woman's voice.

Sunny sat bolt upright in her bed, clearly startled by the sudden yell. Sun leaked in through the closed shades of her window, brightening her room. Reluctantly, she removed the covers of her soft and inviting bed, and slowly stood up. She then turned her attention to the clock hung up on the wall which read 9:00. Sunny suddenly remembered the day, Saturday, exactly a week before her 13th birthday, however there was a problem. She didn't know what she wanted to do with her life.

She liked kids, so maybe she could look into teaching? What about a job with dust research? That was interesting. But then there was always….

"Sunny are you coming?" her mother asked as she entered her room through the use of a wheelchair.

"You know when I was just about your age, I was up at 5:00 every morning!" came a gruff voice from a nearby room.

…Then there was always hunting.

"Yeah mom, just stretching" Sunny replied with a smile.

"Okay, breakfast is ready by the way" her mother informed with an equally jubilant attitude.

Sunny exhaled as she got dressed in her current clothes. She walked over to window which she drew open, displaying the quant little town just outside of Vale that she called home. After opening her blinds to their fullest, Sunny made her way to the kitchen where she saw her father sitting down sipping a mug of coffee and reading his scroll.

She looked at the grizzled middle aged man with pride. While he was a hunter, she still admired his persistence and optimism. This was because he lost his right arm while on a mission with her mother. It was the same mission that put her in the wheelchair. She loved them both dearly, but they had changed after that mission a few years ago. She rarely saw the light of wonder and happiness in his eyes anymore and while her mom did try to remain cheerful for Sunny's sake, it was obvious that it was just a façade.

Sunny grabbed a plate of pancakes as she sat down at the wooden table, across from her father, who just stood up.

"Welp, I'm off" he said as he pocketed his scroll.

"Wait what? Where are you going?" she asked through mouthfuls of food.

"I got called on a mission sweetie, but don't worry, I'll be back for your birthday" he said with a smile, ruffling Sunny's hair. After kissing Sunny's mother on the cheek, he exited the house with a final wave. Sunny admired her father greatly, but she also worried about him constantly.

Still on her journey home from Signal Academy, Sunny passed various villages that she had not known about. She also made time to admire the various flora and fauna that made up the ecosystem. However, due to her lingering, the sky quickly turned evening before she knew it.

Cursing herself for wasting so much time, Sunny began to pick up the pace. She was still too far away from her town, it would take at least two hours. Closing her eyes, the extra exercise seemed almost calming as the cool breeze blew across her face. That is, until she smacked directly into something.

"Hey! Watch where you're going kid!" ordered a rather heavy set man.

"Pssh, stupid girl" added another man with him, who was quite short.

"It was an honest accident! No need to yell at me!" Sunny defended herself putting her hands on her hips.

"Oh yeah?" the man said raising his fist at Sunny.

"HELP! HELP US PLEASE!" yelled a voice in the distant. The stranger lowered his fist to face the direction of the voice which was slowly getting louder and louder. An elderly man barreled through a bush at an alarming rate. "Please you have to help my village! We're under attack by Grimm!"

"Well you've come to the right place pal" answered the shorter man cockily. He slapped his chest "My associate and I happen to be the best hunters in Vale" gesturing to the heavy set stranger.

"Please you've got to help us!" The man pleaded, nearly in tears.

"Of course we'll help, of course" the shorter one said. The elderly man looked up with hope in his eyes which was quickly destroyed. "On one condition, let's say five thousand lien?"

"But sir, I don't have the kind of money" the elder replied.

The stranger sighed, "Well, it looks like we can't help you then."

Sunny growled at the men's' greedy nature. She shoved them out of the way and stated "I'll help you sir! Where is your village?"

The man smiled greatly "Oh my goodness, thank you young lady, it's over there" Sunny began to break out into a full sprint as she headed to the direction that the elderly man had pointed. In the distance she could hear the faint laughter of the strangers "Her?! She's gonna get ripped to shreds!"

One week had passed and it was finally Sunny's long awaited 13th birthday. However, something was missing, her father. He had not returned like he had promised, and everyone was beginning to worry.

Sunny gazed out of the window of her room, into the rainy and gloomy afternoon. Despite it being her special day, she did not feel special, only worry and regret filled her. When was he going to come back? He promised. Please let him be okay.

Sunny's mother made her way quietly into her room and noticed Sunny's distant demeanor. In an effort to cheer her up, "How about we go to that new café that just opened up? I hear it's pretty great!" she offered.

After a brief moment of silence Sunny finally spoke "Alright!" she said cheerily. She knew her mother was just as worried as she was about her father. She was trying to be strong so Sunny would have to do so too.

Throughout her life, Sunny's mom remained supportive and caring of her, despite certain setbacks. Sunny knew her true feelings of despair and hopelessness, and tried to do everything to make her happy, but just like her father, the light had faded from her eyes.

Taking a car to the nearby town, Sunny and her mother arrived at the café that had been talked about so much. Opening the glass doors, Sunny stared at the very open interior, primarily consisting of windows. Sunny's mother found a table while Sunny ordered some drinks. When their drinks were delivered, Sunny observed something different. Looking around the area, she noticed that there was distinct lack of faunus in the café. In fact, were faunus even allowed in here?

"It's sad to see that some people still aren't tolerant of others" Sunny's mom said sipping her drink. Sunny nodded as she finished her beverage quickly, still hoping to find her father at home when they return.

Ready to leave and return home, Sunny began to stand up but stopped when she heard her mother sigh. She directed her attention to her and saw that she was staring out the window.

"Isn't it sad?" her mother asks suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Sunny said getting back in her seat.

Her mother gestured outside to two men plastering numerous posters of their faces on walls. The posters read "Hunters for Hire. Best in Vale. Negotiable price. 1,000 lien down payment."

"I remember when it was about wanting to help people. The hunter name used to mean something. But now there's these people, just a bunch of ill-mannered thugs if you ask me" her mother said sadly gazing down at her drink.

Sunny thought for a moment before a plan quickly formed in her head. Although, she knew she wouldn't like it. "Hey mom. I'll do it! I'll make it mean something again! Just like you and dad!" she stated proudly.

Her mother's eyes shot up to Sunny, and they finally, harbored that light of hope and love that Sunny had missed so much. "Oh Sunny! I know you will!" she replied tearing up a bit. To comfort her, Sunny walked over and embraced her.

(Optional but recommended music here: watch?v=ENXQQry310E&t=2m7s)

The smell of burning wood and smoke filled the air as Sunny got closer to the village. Pushing past branches and bushes, Sunny could faintly hear the screaming of people. Taking off the cylinder from her back, she pressed a button on it that caused the cylinder to extend quickly to the length of approximately ten feet. It had become a golden lance.

Slamming the end into the ground while running, Sunny was able to launch herself forwards and over the trees, landing in the middle of the village in distress. She observed her surroundings quickly and saw numerous beowolves and ursa chasing villagers.

Sunny jumped in front of a beowolf about to attack a villager but quickly brought her lance up quickly to block the attack. She retaliated by quickly slamming the side of her lance into the grimm's head, knocking it to the ground. She then jumped up and brought the end of the lance down into its body, killing it.

"You've got to get out of here!" she shouted to the villager who quickly nodded in agreement. Sunny looked to her side to see three beowolves surrounding a man far away. Pressing a trigger on the handle of her lance, she fired off three shots from the end of her lance, all of which were direct hits. However, before she could turn around she felt herself being slammed forward and into a nearby house, creating a crater in the wall. Dusting herself off, she looked forward to see an ursa charging her. In return, she also charged forward with her lance aimed directly at its head. In the last few feet, the ursa leaped forward in hopes of getting behind Sunny, but was quickly stopped as Sunny impaled it through the chest in midair.

Pulling the lance out of the grimm's chest, Sunny suddenly heard the muffled cry of an infant. She looked around until she determined that the source of the sound was coming from inside one of the burning houses. Kicking the door down, she looked around and saw a small child, no more than three years old, curled up in the corner of the room. The fire spread quickly throughout the room, subsequently depleting the air. Sunny ran forward to the whimpering child and placed her palm on their forehead. Slowing her breathing, Sunny felt her hand warm up as she activated her semblance. The cries of the child quieted as they quickly fell asleep in Sunny's arms. Now carrying the child in one hand, Sunny blasted open a wall with her lance in the other. She walked out of the opening and gave the child to a nearby villager, telling them to find the parents.

She looked around the village, assessing the overall damage. Once the fires were eventually extinguished she deemed her job done and left. She looked up at the sky which was slowly turning orange, signaling a new day.

Sunny and her mother left the café after paying and headed back to their home. However, something was odd when they reached their destination; Sunny noticed that their door was unlocked. Opening the door, Sunny immediately became ecstatic when she saw her father standing there with a cake in his arm.

"DAD!" she cried as she ran to hug him.

"Heh, told ya I'd be back" he said setting the cake down and petting her hair.

"Guess what she told me today? She wants to be hunter!" Sunny's mother said entering the house. "Isn't that wonderful?"

"It sure is" he said proudly. "You're gonna be great kiddo. I just know it."

Opening the door of her home quietly, Sunny stepped in. Walking over to her room, Sunny noticed her mother asleep in a chair in her room. Coughing quietly, her mother stirred awake, and immediately rubbed her eyes to get rid of tears. Sunny walked over to her mother and embraced her lovingly.

"I was so worried about you" her mother manages to choke out.

Sunny chuckled before answering "Sorry mom, duty calls you know?"

Letting go, her mother held onto her hand and looked at her. "Look how you've grown! I'm so proud of you and I'm sure your father would be too."

"Yeah, where is he?" Sunny asked sitting on the edge of her bed.

"He's on some mission as usual, but come on, I've got a surprise for you" her mother answered. She pulled Sunny out of the house and they headed towards a familiar location.

Entering the café, Sunny and her mother sat down at a nearby table. "Still looks pretty good after three years" Sunny said looking around.

"Well, it was actually built recently! The old place got torn down in the middle of the night for some reason. But now it's much more faunus friendly!" answered her mother.

"Can I take your order?" asked a rabbit faunus girl dressed in a black and yellow waitress outfit.

After they placed their orders, Sunny's mother began to tear up again. "I'm just… so proud of you!" she said. Sunny had missed seeing the affection and pride in her mother's eyes and voice. "Have you thought of any schools?"

"Yeah" Sunny said leaning back in her chair. "Beacon Academy."


	4. Purple Trailer

The thunder of voices created an unintelligible storm of noise. Bodies bumped into one another and it continued to be an everlasting contest of who can yell the loudest. Discord and chaos would be just a couple words to describe the event. This was Tyran Viska's element. The overwhelming feelings of unity and pride were exhilarating to him.

Tyran Viska is a 16 year old faunus with a medium build. He dons a striped white and purple tee shirt and a deep purple utility jacket. He wears jeans and black combat boots, has short, unkempt dark purple hair as well as a stubble-like beard. Finally, atop his head poked two gray fluffy wolf ears.

Tyran looked around at the faunus surrounding him, holding signs reading "WE ARE NOT ANIMALS!","WE DESERVE EQUALITY", etc. The chanting and yelling filled him with confidence and ecstasy. He felt at home among his faunus brothers and sisters, it was a comforting sort of feeling. They were currently protesting a café that refused to serve faunus customers.

Suddenly the cries of equality turned to screams when Tyran heard several gun shots pierce the air. Some protestors turned and ran away, but others merely stepped to the side, creating a gap through the crowd. Some thugs walked through said gap, led by the worst of them all, Sal Drvar.

Sal Drvar was a scumbag low-life who would like to see nothing more than the extinction of faunus. Unfortunately, through his underhanded and violent ways, he was able to keep the whole town in his pocket.

Sal had a muscular build with a strong jaw line, dark red hair that was slicked back, and a red goatee. He wore sunglasses and commonly had a cigarette in his mouth. He also wore a white buttoned up dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, red suspenders, and a straight red tie. Finally, contributing to his somewhat formal attire, he wore black slacks and black dress shoes. In his hand he held a rather large red battle axe with one end smoking.

Some faunus began to back away slowly, obvious that they were afraid of him. He looked around at the crowd and scoffed. "Tch. What a bunch of animals. You should go back to your masters." No one dared speak against him, so the area remained quiet. "Just as I thought." He said turning around and walking away.

"We're not animals!" Tyran heard himself say. It must have been an innate response, for he thought he was still in shock. Sal stopped mid step before turning around. "Which one of you pieces of filth said that?!" he demanded.

Tyran stepped forward while everyone else stepped away. "I did. We're not animals." He said again. Sal quickly strode over to where Tyran was standing and leaned down a bit to get in his face.

"Is that right?" he asked. Tyran nodded to his question. "Well if you're not animals then why are you on the ground begging for mercy?"

Tyran looked up at him quizzically "But I'm no-" but was cut off as he felt the side of Sal's axe slam into his face. He crumpled to the ground holding the side of his face. "Now beg" Sal said leaning against his axe. "Like the dog you are."

"I'm not begging" Tyran said firmly now getting up and looking Sal in the eyes. "We're aren't animals."

"Maybe you need to learn some obedience dog!" Sal said raising his axe again. Tyran flinched and closed his eyes as he braced himself for the attack that did not come.

"What's going on here, huh?" an unknown voice came. Tyran opened his eyes to see a man holding Sal's arm back with an iron grip. He was tall and had muscular build, had short black hair with long sideburns, and wore a red shirt.

Sal attempted to retaliate against the stranger with a roundhouse kick, but it was blocked by his other arm. Sal wrenched his arm free and glared at the stranger while his men raised their fists, prepared to teach him a lesson. However, Sal raised his arm in the air, stopping them.

"You're not worth it, you filth" Sal spat out. "C'mon boys." The stranger returned Sal's glare and maintained it until he and his thugs had gone away.

Tyran quickly ran over to the stranger who had stopped Sal. "Hey! Thanks for saving me. I'm Tyran" he said smiling and extending his hand.

The man looked down at his hand and eventually shook it. "Tukson" he responded.

"You're a hero to these faunus you know? You're a good person Tukson." Tyran said full of hope.

'Tukson, that name sounds familiar, but from what?' Tyran thought.

"No, I'm not, Tyran." Tukson said plainly before walking away.

Tyran began to reach out and stop him from leaving but faltered when he remembered that he was supposed to be at home.

The darkness of night may have proven difficult to traverse for a normal person. However, faunus do so with ease, due to their near perfect night vision. As a result, Tyran made his way home quickly, praying that his parents were asleep and would not notice him enter.

Tyran cringed as he opened the creaky back door of his house hoping to make too much noise. He then walked over to the living room where the lights were on and his parents were sitting on the couch, head in hands. His mother quickly noticed his return and immediately stood up and ran over and embraced him.

"We were so worried about you! Where were you?!" she demanded to know, nearly in tears. Tyran's mother was a woman of average height and build. She had shoulder length straight purple hair and a black wolf ears. Tyran had received his faunus traits from her, as she had similar ears to her son.

"I was just in town…at a protest…." he answered quietly.

"You what?!" shouted his father. Tyran's father was a tall middle aged man, with a muscular build. He had shaved hair and a strong jawline.

"It was nothing, just a café that didn't want to serve us…." he said distantly.

"Nothing?! Then where did you get this bruise?!" His mother said running her hand across his cheek.

"It was an accident, I just fell, it's fine." He replied pushing his mother's hand away.

His parents sighed as it was obvious that Tyran was lying.

"I'm just gonna go to bed, I'm sorry about the protest, but something has got to be done." He stated before walking away to his room.

Closing the door behind him, Tyran collapsed on his bed, exhausted from his day. The comforting softness of the bed quickly caused sleep to overtake him.

The morning came quickly as sun leaked into his room, forcing Tyran awake. He squinted, still disoriented from his sleep. Realizing that he slept in his clothes, he went to take a shower and put on clothes of the same fashion. However, there was something wrong today. The café was still discriminating faunus, and their voices need to be heard. Whether he was alone or not, it was the right thing to do for faunus everywhere. Yet this time, he would be prepared, he grabbed his pair of purple tonfas with white tips and clipped them to each of his legs.

Crawling carefully into the kitchen, Tyran made sure that his parents had not noticed him before he quickly slipped out of the house. He would just apologize to them when he got back, and all would be good.

The thunder of voices was no longer present unlike the previous day. The faunus that were so passionate about the cause had disappeared, most likely the events of yesterday had scared them.

Tyran wandered aimlessly outside the discriminating café, switching between holding a sign and quietly protesting outside the door. That is, until he spotted a familiar name across the street at a store.

'Wait a minute' thought Tyran. 'That's where I know Tukson from! Tukson's Book Trade!' Tyran sprinted across the street to go inside the shop.

"Hey Tukson!" he shouted as he walked in.

Tukson stopped organizing books to look up and see Tyran "Oh, hello Tyran, nice to see you again" he said politely.

"Yeah, I was just back over at that café when I saw your shop, I forgot that you ran a bookstore! You must love to read" Tyran said smiling.

"Yeah, it's an…interesting business, although I don't have much downtime to read…." Tukson said scratching the back of his neck.

"Well, I just wanted to stop by and say thank you again, for yesterday" Tyran replied.

"Oh, yeah, no problem, I don't like to see fellow faunus mistreated" Tukson said quietly.

Tyran waved goodbye and began to walk towards the door before stopping. "By the way, where did you learn to fight like that?" Tyran inquired.

Tukson's eyes widened but he quickly regained composure. "Haha, I didn't fight at all, I just got lucky" he said chuckling.

Tyran nodded "Haha, alright, well I'll see ya later!" He walked out the door after waving goodbye and walked down the street before he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around he saw one of Sal's men who quickly grabbed his shoulders and threw him into an alleyway.

Tyran fell flat and quickly picked himself up to get away, but was stopped by several guards blocking the entrance. He reached for his tonfas but stopped when he head laughing behind him. Spinning around, he saw Sal emerge from the shadows, twirling his axe in one hand.

"Where do you think you're going dog?" Sal said leaning the axe against his shoulder. "I don't think you learned your lesson yesterday."

Tyran whipped out his tonfas and moved into a defensive stance.

Sal laughed again, taunting Tyran to attack him. "How cute, the dog thinks he can fight back."

Tyran screamed as he jumped towards Sal and unleashed an onslaught of punches and kicks. Sal continued to chuckle as he avoided Tyran's attacks with ease. Jumping back, Tyran slammed the sides of his tonfas together creating a large "L" shape. Holding the ends, he firmly gripped the handle, releasing two shotgun shells from the other end. They hit Sal directly causing him to lose his balance and stumble backwards. Tyran took the opportunity to undo his tonfas and rush him down. Hitting Sal's knee with one end of the tonfa and the side of his face with the other filled Tyran with satisfaction. Preparing a final blow, Tyran reeled back his right arm but his fist was stopped by Sal gripping it tight.

Tyran gasped as he thought Sal did not have enough strength left to stop him. Tyran had put his all in those attacks. Sal ripped off his sunglasses and spat out his cigarette and got close to Tyran's face again. "I'm going to end all these freaks, starting with you. You scum!" Sal yelled eyes filled with rage.

Tyran attempted to wrench his arm free but to no avail. Instead, Sal lifted Tyran in the air by his arm and threw him into the brick wall of the alley creating a crater. Tyran fell to the ground with a *thud*, pain coursing through his body. Sal walked over to the collapsed Tyran and raised his axe in the air and brought it down…but stopped millimeters before Tyran's body.

"No." Sal said walking away. "I'm going to make you suffer just a little longer. I hope you said goodbye to your parents already."

Tyran's eyes widened and tried to stand but the pain made it impossible to do so. Exhaustion quickly overtook him and his eyes slowly closed.

The night sky was all that Tyran could see when his eyes opened. He gasped as he remembered the events that had just transpired. Quickly examining himself, he breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed no obvious broken bones. Struggling to get to his feet, Tyran activated his semblance. The pain from his body faded away, but the wounds remained untreated. His semblance acted as one of the world's strongest painkillers, but provides no healing properties. Tyran looked around and quickly made his way home as fast as he could.

Arriving at his home, the first thing Tyran noticed was that it was not destroyed or vandalized in any way. However the lights were off, which was unusual as his parents would usually wait for him to get home.

Opening the back door Tyran called out "Mom? Dad?" But silence was the only response. He quickly called out again "Mom?! Dad?!" But nothing. Tyran crumpled to the ground as he tears streamed down his face. "Why!?" He screamed.

As he lay on the floor he suddenly noticed a note stuck to the back door. Picking it up, Tyran read 'Meet me at the place where you held your pathetic protest.' Tyran's sadness was quickly replaced by anger and vengeance. "Sal is going to pay" he spat out.

Tukson picked up his keys on the counter of his desk near the front of his shop. Looking around the store, he made sure that everything was in place. Diagnosing the place as clean and organized, he began to walk over to the door to leave but before he could do so, it was thrown open.

Tukson stared quizzically at the figure before him, it was Tyran, but something was different about him. His eyes were filled with hate and his right arm was bruised badly.

"Tyran?" Tukson asked hesitantly. Tyran walked over to him and looked into his eyes.

"You need to train me." Tyran stated simply.

"What?" Tukson replied raising his hands . "I'm not a fighter remember? Just got a little lucky yester-."

"I know you're in the White Fang" Tyran accused cutting off Tukson, who looked at him surprisingly. "I'm not an idiot, there's no other way you could've gotten that kind of training, unless you were a hunter, and you're no hunter."

Tukson sighed. "Yes I _was_ in the White Fang, but no more. They've changed now, violent and dangerous. The first chance I get, I'm getting as far away from them as possible. But, I'm not going to train you."

Tyran gritted his teeth "Why not?! Sal's got my family! You don't understand!"

Tukson turned away from Tyran "I'm not going to train you, but I will give you advice. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement, the most powerful move in a fight, is showing mercy. Please remember that."

Tyran clenched his fists and walked out, slamming the door shut behind him.

Footsteps echoed throughout the dark town as Tyran headed towards the café. Turning the corner, he noticed that the door was open, but it was past business hours? Tyran walked into the café and noticed Sal sitting in a chair in a reclined position, a drink in his hand. He felt anger surge through him when he saw Sal's smug smirk, but quickly remembered Tukson's advice. Tyran took a deep breath and slowly relaxed himself.

"So we doing this or what?" Sal said standing up and placing his drink on a table.

"You're going give me back my family" Tyran stated emotionless. "And then you're going straight to the police."

Sal roared with laughter "The police?! Hah, locking me away isn't going to do a thing! I'll be out in less than a week! What? You think this is going to be some kind of statement for faunus everywhere?! You freaks will never be equal!"

Then, it finally clicked with Tyran. The problem with faunus inequality wasn't location, government, or Sal. It was humans.

(Optional but recommend music here: watch?v=xaU0xQWvHrw&t=3m15s)

Tyran's only response was to unclip his tonfas from his legs. Sal chuckled as he pulled out his axe. Sal rushed down Tyran swinging his axe down with all his might but was blocked by Tyran's perpendicular tonfas. Pushing on his axe he pushed Tyran away and pressed a button on the handle of his axe. This caused the blade to shift down exposing a gun barrel.

Tyran dove behind one of the main pillars of the building. Sal fired off several shots, each of them piercing the pillar blowing away chunks. Realizing that the pillar would not last long, Tyran dove behind another similar pillar. Sal changed his gun back to axe mode and strode over to Tyran's cover and swung with all of his strength slicing straight through the pillar, causing it to fall and the entire building to shudder.

Tyran vaulted over the cover and slammed Sal in the face with the side of his tonfa. Rubbing his face, Sal moved his other hand to the end of his axe and threw it at Tyran. Tyran suddenly activated his semblance, as he made no effort to avoid the oncoming axe. The weapon stuck directly into his torso, which he observed and ripped out. Sal looked at the boy in complete shock and disbelief. Holding the axe in his hand, Tyran threw it behind him, causing it to stick into the other pillar of the building. He then quickly turned around and delivered a roundhouse to Sal's side causing him to stumble to the side. Sal then brought up his fists in a fighting stance. Tyran then swiped at his head, but Sal ducked and uppercut Tyran who didn't even flinch.

Tyran then delivered rapid jabs to Sal's torso, causing him to fall on his back. Finally, Tyran walked over and dropped his tonfas. He knelt down to Sal's face and punched him in the face as hard as he could, slightly bruising his knuckles.

"Now you're going to tell me" Tyran said "Where is my family?"

Sal coughed and giggled to himself. "That's the funny part" He said wiping away dirt. "I didn't do a thing to them. They were gone before I got there. Haha, good luck dog."

Tyran stared in disbelief as he stood up. What was he going to do? Where could they be? However he couldn't finish his thoughts as they were interrupted by Sal.

"So, to the police now?" He said still chuckling.

Tyran picked up his tonfas and walked over to the pillar. "No."

"Wha-" Sal said confused. Tyran slammed his tonfas together and walked outside. He aimed them at the pillar and fired, blasting it away, causing the building to completely collapse.

The destruction of the local café drew a lot of attention, human and faunus alike. Tyran waded through the crowds of humans until he found another faunus to talk to.

"What happened?" Tyran asked quizzically, as if he did not know.

"Dunno, it just collapsed in the middle of the night" the faunus said. She wore a yellow and black waitress outfit and had white rabbit ears poking out of her long blonde hair. "On the bright side, it's going to be rebuilt under new management. Faunus friendly now, maybe I can get a job there?"

"Good luck with that" Tyran replied walking away.

While the problem with Sal might have been solved there was still a question lingering in his mind. What happened to his parents? Where could they possibly be? He had to find out, no matter what. However, he would definitely need training, he had already lost to Sal twice before until yesterday. But how could he do that? Tyran walked down the street until he passed a flyer pasted to the wall of a building. It read "Beacon Academy: Train to fight the creatures of Grimm and become a hunter or huntress! Admissions Now." Hunting, now _that_ was a way to train and travel. Picking up the flyer, he walked to the nearest registration center.


	5. Volume 1 Chapter 1

The gentle humming of the airship relaxed Cye as he was being transported to Beacon. He held his briefcase in his lap as he gazed outside the window. He certainly needed it after the events of last week, getting set up for a robbery, charged with said robbery, offered money, taken money, tried to run away, curb stomped, and back to running away.

'Man' Cye thought 'It seems like history just keeps repea-' but was cut off abruptly by another boy sitting down next to him. Cye gazed over to him and immediately noticed that something was wrong with him. The boy had shaggy blonde hair, blue eyes and wore a black and orange hoodie. Around his hoodie, he wore white armor and had a sword strapped to his side.

The boy held his hand over his mouth, as if trying to prevent himself from vomiting.

"Hey man, you doin' alright?" Cye asked concerned.

The boy swallowed with much difficulty, but managed to respond. "Yeah, just some motion sickness you know? I'm Jaune Arc by the way, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." Jaune extended his hand in greeting.

Cye looked down at it, slightly disgusted, "I'm sure they do. Cye Lureri" he said reluctantly shaking Jaune's hand, but immediately wiping it on his pants afterwards.

"Well Cye, why're you here?" Jaune inquired, looking much better than before.

"Same reason as everyone else! I want to become a hunter!" He lied. His demeanor had changed from a distant one to a much more jubilant one. "What about you?"

"Well, I'm kinda following my family, you see. My grandfa-" Jaune began but quickly stopped as his face started to turn a sickly green.

"Jaune? You okay?" Cye asked, already knowing the answer. Jaune replied with a weak thumbs up and nodded. Cye sighed as he opened his briefcase and withdrew one of his cups that he had used to swindle people off the streets. He held it out to Jaune who quickly took it and then made horrible gut-wrenching sounds. Cye scooted farther down the seat row, completely grossed out.

A woman suddenly appeared on the screen in the airship, cutting off the news feed that previously occupied it. "I am Glynda Goodwitch" she stated. "You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future huntsman and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such as task and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

Her hologram disappeared as Beacon Academy slowly came into view. Other students flocked to the windows to observe the impressive sight, while Jaune on the other hand, was still struggling. Cye patted his back until Jaune had finally finished.

"You can keep the cup" Cye told him.

"Thanks" Jaune said weakly. Cye felt the airship begin to slow down as it landed along the platform of the school. The doors of the ship opened and the bright sun shone through. Students began to exit, especially Jaune, who was getting his second wind. Cye picked up his briefcase as he followed suit but stopped when he reached Jaune. He leaned against the wall as he waited for Jaune to finish, which took a while.

Wiping his mouth, Jaune stood up and looked at Cye "Thanks for waiting"

Cye smirked "No problem" he answered.

"So, where to now?" Jaune asked.

"I assume we just follow everyone else" Cye replied gesturing to the rest of the students walking to the massive school.

"Right" Jaune said as they began to walk together, with everyone else. They continued on their way until they reached large plaza style area. A girl wearing a red hood and skirt spun around confusedly until she fell down on top of various briefcases, knocking them everywhere.

"What are you doing?!" demanded another girl wearing a white and red dress. She wore her snow white hair in a long ponytail and wore white heels.

'She looks familiar' Cye thought 'but from where?'

"Hey Cye she's pretty cute huh?" Jaune whispered to Cye, elbowing him.

Cye looked around at the various other briefcases strewn about the area. All of them had a logo painted on them, some kind of snowflake?

"This is dust. Mined and purified from the Schnee quarry" The girl continued.

'Wait a minute.' Cye thought. 'Schnee?! Oh god no! That's Weiss Schnee! How did I not recognize her before?! What if she recognizes me? I'd be dead!'

"We should go over and talk to her" Jaune suggested beginning to take a step towards them.

"Uhhh, actually I think we should, uhhh, stay here! Yes, stay right here! It's safer here!" Cye said nervously as he held onto Jaune's shoulder with an iron grip.

"Safer? What are we safer from?" Jaune asked. But immediately after speaking those words, an explosion echoed throughout the campus. Cye looked over and saw that the two arguing girls were now covered in black ash.

"That! See what would've happened if we went over there!" Cye shouted.

"Well I guess you're right, but how did you know that was going to happen?" Jaune wondered. Suddenly a new girl entered the fray, she had long black hair and wore a black bow.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners" the new stranger stated.

'Questionable business partners, yeah no kidding' Cye thought. 'All I have to do is completely avoid her for the next four years, should be easy enough…' Cye's train of thought ended abruptly when he looked over to his side, and noticed that Jaune was missing. Turning around frantically, he saw Jaune helping the girl with the red hood up.

Cye jogged over to him and the girl right as they were making introductions.

"Jaune, I _thought_ we agreed to stay over there where it's safer" Cye said looking around quickly for any sign of Weiss.

"Oh this is Cye" Jaune said introducing him.

"Hi nice to meet you…" he trailed off.

"Ruby" answered the girl. Ruby then snickered and looked at Jaune, "Wait, aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?"

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on" Jaune explained as Cye rolled his eyes.

Ruby spoke "Look I'm sorry, vomit boy was the first thing that came to mind."

"That seems a little excessive though" Cye suggested.

Ruby smiled weakly as Jaune spoke "Oh yeah? What if I called you crater face?"

"Hey that explosion was an accident" Ruby defended as Cye chuckled.

"Well the name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it" Jaune said pointing to himself.

"Do they?" Ruby inquired.

"Eventually" Cye responded.

"Th- They will! Well, uh, I hope they will. My mom always said tha-" Jaune said but quickly stopped as he received surprised looks from Ruby and Cye. "Eh, nevermind."

Ruby chuckled awkwardly before pulling out a gigantic scythe from her back "Sooo, I got this thing"

Cye and Jaune both stepped back a bit "Whoa!" Jaune exclaimed "Is that a scythe?"

"It's also a customizable high impact sniper rifle" Ruby answered.

"A wha-" Jaune and Cye said in unison.

"It's also a gun" Ruby explained as she cocked it.

"Oh" Jaune said "That's cool!"

"Yeah!" agreed Cye.

"So what do you guys got?" Ruby asked.

"Oh" Jaune repeated as he unsheathed the sword at his side. "I, uh, I got this sword"

"Ooooooh" Ruby admired, eyeing the sword up and down.

"Yeah, I got a shield too" Jaune added as a shield unfolded from his forearm.

"So what do they do?" Ruby inquired as she touched the shield, causing it to launch in the air and Jaune hopelessly trying to catch it.

"The shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just…put it away" he said unsurely.

"But wouldn't it weight the same?" Ruby questioned.

"Yeah it does" Jaune said sadly as Cye tried not to laugh.

"What about you Cye?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, uhh, these" Cye replied as he pulled out his sky blue crescent knives from his briefcase. "They're, uhh, knives, so I can stab or slash stuff I guess."

"Well, heheh, I'm kinda a dork when it comes to weapons. I guess I did go overboard in designing it."

"Wait you made that?!" Jaune and Cye said in unison again.

"Of course" Ruby answered. "All students at Signal forget their own weapons. Didn't you guys make yours?"

Cye looked at both his knives, "No, my mother gave them to me…."

Jaune looked down at his sword sadly, "It's a hand-me-down, my great great grandfather used it to fight in the war."

In an attempt to cheer Jaune up, Ruby said "Sounds more like a family heirloom to me! Well I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

Jaune began to perk up "Yeah, heh, the classics."

The group began to walk again and Ruby asked "So why did you help me back there? In the courtyard?"

Jaune answered "Ehh, why not? My mom always says 'strangers are just friends you haven't met yet"

Cye decided to speak as he noticed something "Hey, so, where are going exactly?"

"I don't know I was following you" Jaune replied. "Y-you think there might be a directory? Maybe a…food court? Some sort of recognizable landmark? Is that a no?"

Ruby giggled "That's a no…."


	6. Volume 1 Chapter 2

Mika walked into the massive auditorium of Beacon Academy that was teeming with students. She looked around at everyone else, but saw nothing but random people. A blonde girl and a girl with black hair were talking, a defeated looking blonde guy being comforted by blue haired boy, and a girl was leaning against a wall with red hair, golden Spartan armor and wait a minute.

That was her! Pyrrha Nikos! The girl that made a complete fool of Mika in front of everyone in Mistral. Gritting her teeth, she stomped over to her former opponent.

Pyrrha looked up from where she was standing and noticed Mika. Pyrrha began to wave to her, but Mika pointed towards her as if accusing her of something.

"You! Me! Right here! Right now! Let's go!" Mika shouted.

"I'm sorry?" Pyrrha wondered.

"Rematch girlie! This time I won't fall for your cheating!" Mika continued.

"Cheating? What cheating?" Pyrrha asked.

"That doesn't matter! Get ready for a fair fight!" Mika yelled as she unclipped her gunblade but stopped as someone held her arm back.

A girl in a yellow tank top and white scarf held Mika's arm with all her strength. She had short blonde hair and had some sort of cylinder on her back?

"I don't think this is the right place to start a fight, you don't want to get expelled" warned the stranger.

"…No….. I guess not" Mika huffed.

"Wait a minute!" said the girl redirecting her attention to Pyrrha. "You're Pyrrha Nikos! The winner of four straight Mistral Regional Tournaments! That's awesome!"

"Oh it's not that much" Pyrrha replied humbly as Mika punched a wall in the background.

"Oh! And you look familiar too!" the girl said towards Mika. Mika's eyes brightened. Finally! Some recognition!

"You're the girl who works at that café in Vale!" the stranger said smiling. "I was just there!"

Mika's eye twitched at the girl's lack of knowledge. "Hey! I'll have you kno-" Mika began but was cut off.

"It's a pleasure to meet you…" Pyrrha said reaching her hand out.

"Sunny! Sunny Keusik! What's your name?" Sunny asked Mika.

"I'm the runner up of the Mistral Regio-" Mika began again but stopped as a mic cracked.

An older gentleman walked onto stage and cleared his throat. "I'll…keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you finish, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you, to take the first step."

The man walked off stage while the previously introduced Glynda Goodwitch walked up to the mic. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight, tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

"So what do you think the initiation is? I hope we can get paired up as teammates, that'd be fun, right?" Sunny said to Mika. They were currently walking through the ballroom, where many students had already fallen asleep.

Weaving through the bodies, Sunny continued. "So where are you from Mika? I'm from a small village outside of Vale blah blah blah…." Was all Mika heard as she glared across the room at Pyrrha. Sunny decided to hang around with her, which she didn't mind, but Pyrrha was the real reason she was here.

After walking for a bit, Mika changed direction and began walking towards Pyrrha. "Mika? Mika? Mika!" Sunny shouted as she jumped in front of her to get her attention.

"What? What do you want?!" Mika shouted back.

"Are you paying attention?" Sunny asked. "Or are you still thinking of Pyrrha? Is there something between you guys?"

"Are you kidding me?! She made a fool of me at the Mistral Regional Tournament!" Mika exclaimed.

Sunny looked at her quizzically. "What? You were in that?"

Mika sighed as she pushed Sunny away, which caused her fall backwards, landing on another student.

"Ouch" said Sunny as she rubbed her head. "Hi I'm Sunny!" She greeted to a very confused girl with short black hair and red highlights.

Mika stomped over towards Pyrrha, nearly bursting with rage. Eventually reaching Pyrrha, who was leaning against a wall, observing something.

"Who do you think you are?!" demanded Mika.

"I'm afraid I don't understand" Pyrrha replied tilting her head.

"You come in here thinking you're the best thing ever don't you! Well you're not! Just know that the next time we fight, I'm going to win!" Mika yelled, pointing at herself.

Pyrrha smiled. "Well, I look forward to our next match."

Mika held her head in her hands. "What is wrong with you!? No one's this kind or happy! And worst of all, why aren't you taking me seriously?!" Mika got no response as she looked at Pyrrha who was currently engrossed in something else, behind Mika. She waved her hand in front of Pyrrha's eyes, causing her to snap out of it.

"Oh! I'm sorry." Pyrrha apologized.

"This is exactly what I mean!" Mika shouted. "Am I just amusement for you?!"

"What are you looking at anyways?" Mika asked as she turned around. Looking back she saw a scrawny looking blonde boy wearing blue bunny feety pajamas.

Mika flattened her rabbit ears in both embarrassment and anger. Hanging her head in shame, yet again, Mika walked back over to Sunny who was currently lying down looking at her Scroll.

Mika lied down and slapped her hands on her face. Hearing an audible sigh from Mika, Sunny looked over. "How'd it go?"

Mika removed her hands from her face. "Shut up Sunny."

"On the bright side, I made new friends!" Sunny replied with a smile.

"Shut up Sunny" Mika repeated.

"They're super cool! And one of them is fifteen years old!" Sunny continued.

"Wait, fifteen?" Mika inquired.

"Yeah, she must be amazing to get in here at that age!" Sunny said.

'Great, now EVERYBODY is showing me up!' Mika thought. 'But I'm not going to let that happen anymore. I'm going to be the best….'

The final light in the room was extinguished, enveloping the ballroom in near complete darkness, only illuminated by the shattered moon in the sky.


	7. Volume 1 Chapter 3

Tyran awoke with the sound of birds chirping outside, signaling a new day. The events of the previous day were pretty uneventful. He took the airship to Beacon, disembarked with the rest of the students, listened to the initiation speech by Ozpin, and went to bed. Not much out the ordinary.

Sitting up from where he slept, Tyran stretched out and went to go change out of his sleepwear. On his way back, he heard a rather chipper orange haired girl pester a poor, quiet black haired boy. She seemed especially excited about this being the first day of official school, but Tyran shrugged it off, just some kid who couldn't face reality.

After packing his things up, Tyran made his way to the cafeteria where, yet again, the orange haired girl continued to talk, regardless of how much food was in her mouth. But, the boy remained quiet throughout the entire conversation, carefully cutting into his pancakes.

Then, after breakfast, Tyran walked over to the locker rooms and saw the couple for a third time. This time, he was able to pick up more of their conversation.

"I know! We'll have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal! *gasps* A secret signal so we can find each other in the forest! Can you imitate a sloth?" The girl rambled.

"Nora." replied the boy for the first time today.

"Yes Ren?" she inquired.

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise." He answered.

"…That's why it's perfect! No one will suspect we're working together!"

'Man' thought Tyran. 'People are Beacon sure are different.' He pressed a code into his locker which caused it to pop open, revealing his white and purple tonfas carefully placed in it. Clipping them to his legs, he slammed the locker shut until he heard another ongoing conversation nearby.

"So Pyrrha" began a girl dressed in white. "Have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong and well known individual such as yourself."

"Hmm" answered another girl with red hair and wearing golden Spartan armor. "I'm not quite sure, I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Strong?! Well known?! Hah! More like a cheater who just got lucky!" shouted another voice. Tyran turned to see a girl with long blonde hair, pulled back in a ponytail walking with her nose turned up. Another girl with short blonde hair accompanied her, giving apologetic looks to everyone.

Turning back to the previous conversation, Tyran now saw new people enter the fray. A boy with blue hair and black vest alongside a boy with blonde hair and white armor were now present.

"You know what else is great? Me, Jaune Arc, nice to meet ya." The blonde boy said leaning against the locker. The blue haired boy gave him a smile and a thumbs up.

"You agai-" began the girl in white but was interrupted by the girl named Pyrrha.

"Nice to meet you Jaune!" She said excitedly.

"Yeah yeah" Jaune said pushing Pyrrha away. The blue haired boy slapped his face with his hand at Jaune's ignorance. "So Weiss, couldn't help but overhear your fondness of me the other day."

"Oh you've got to be kidding me" Weiss said looking down.

"Hey Jaune, I think someone's calling me, I gotta go" said the blue stranger quickly, looking obviously uncomfortable for some reason.

"Alright Cye, seeya later!" Jaune said before redirecting his attention back to Weiss. "Don't worry, no need to be embarrassed. So, been hearing rumors about _teams,_ I was thinking you and me would make a good one! Whaddya say?"

"Actually" interjected Pyrrha "I think the teams are comprised of four students each so-"

"Ya don't say? Well hot stuff, play your cards right and maybe you could join up with the winning team" Jaune said proudly.

'Four people?' Tyran thought. 'That seems a little excessive. I just hope there are more faunus at this school.'

"Jaune was it? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" Weiss asked.

"Not in the slightest snow angel" Jaune said leaning in.

" _This_ is Pyrrha." Weiss said gesturing towards her.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha repeated.

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum" Weiss explained.

"Never heard of it" Jaune replied.

"Ugh, she's won the Mistral Regional Tournaments four years in a row. A new record!" Weiss continued.

"By cheating!" shouted the same girl from before.

"The what?" asked Jaune.

'How has he not heard of these things?' Tyran thought 'Has he been living under a rock his entire life?'

"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!" Weiss exclaimed.

"That's you!" Jaune gasped.

'Oh, of course, cereal' Tyran thought.

"But they only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!" Jaune said.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool" Pyrrha said. "Sadly the cereal isn't very good for you."

"You didn't deserve it!" shouted the same girl yet again. Jeez, what was her problem?

"So, after hearing all of this" Weiss said "Do you really think you're in a position to ask _her_ to be on your team?"

"I guess not, sorry" Jaune answered hanging his head in shame.

"Actually Jaune, I think you'd make a great leader" Pyrrha said putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Oh stop it!" Jaune said, ecstatic from her praise.

'That's a lot of faith she's putting into him' Tyran thought.

"Seriously, please stop it. This kind of behavior should not be encouraged!" Weiss stated.

"Sounds like Pyrrha's on board for Team Jaune, spots are filling up quick. Now I'm not supposed to do this, but maybe I could pull some strings? Find a place for you? Whaddya say?" Jaune asked leaning in close to Weiss.

"Alright, that's a bit too close! Pyrrha? A little help please?" Weiss pleaded.

Tyran looked towards Pyrrha who leaned back with her spear and launched it towards Jaune, impaling his hoodie and shooting him backwards into the wall. He then saw the boy from earlier, Cye, run over and attempt to help Jaune pull the spear out, but it was not use.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha called.

'Like I said' Tyran thought. 'People at Beacon sure are different.'

The P.A. system suddenly cracked and Glynda's voice emitted from it. "Would all first year students please report to Beacon cliff for initiation. Again, all first year students report to Beacon cliff immediately."

Tyran then looked over to the locker adjacent to his, where a girl with long black hair and black bow was currently retrieving her equipment.

"What do you think the initiation is?" Tyran asked trying to be friendly.

"I don't know" replied the girl apathetically.

"I'm Tyran" he introduced.

"Blake" she replied with the same attitude.

"So Blake" Tyran began. "Why're you hiding who you are?"

Blake's eyes widen, but she quickly regains her composure. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." Blake quickly finished grabbing her stuff and walked off, ending their conversation.

Tyran sighed at her denial and walked out of the locker room, on his way to Beacon cliff.

The sounds of birds filled the air around the cliff. The lush greenery of the Emerald Forest was certainly inviting, but Tyran knew that there was more to it than meets the eye. Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch stood in front of the class, who were currently lined up, preparing for their initiation.

Ozpin finally spoke "For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today." Glynda explained.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin continued. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

'Uh oh' Tyran thought. 'Please let them be faunus, please let them be faunus'

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." Ozpin warned. "You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item as well as your standing and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions? Good! Now take your positions."

Tyran shifted to a ready stance, left foot forward, right foot back. He then felt the platform beneath his feet launch him into the sky. Flying through the sky, he pulled out his tonfas, preparing himself for the upcoming dangers of the Emerald Forest.

Meanwhile….

"Wheeee!" screamed Sunny as she blasted through the air. This was awesome! The wind in your face and above all the trees! She looked around in the air and saw various other students around her, and she remembered Ozpin's words. 'The first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years'

Sunny looked forward to meeting her new partner. Maybe it would be Mika! Or Ruby! Or Yang! Sunny smiled as she pulled her lance out from her back and held it close in front of her. Steering herself towards a nearby tree, her lance impaled a tree and stuck, forcibly and harshly stopping Sunny.

"Oomph" Sunny said at the sudden impact. Landing on a branch, she pulled her lance out from the tree, which left a sizeable hole. She looked around at her surroundings and heard some girl screaming in the distance. Hopping down from the branch, Sunny began to run towards her destination.

The Emerald Forest was massive! How was she going to find anyone here? After about five minutes of running, everything still looked the same. Was she making any progress at all? Slowing her pace to a brisk jog and then walk, Sunny heard a noise coming from a nearby bush.

"Mika? Ruby? Yang? Anyone?" She called out, hoping for a response, but nothing. Sunny sighed and pulled out her lance, prepared for any Grimm.

Out of the bush jumped a giant ursa. Sunny stepped backwards, somewhat intimidated by its size. They both began to circle each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Sunny decided to take the initiative and ran towards the ursa and brought her lance directly up towards its head, but the ursa stood up on two legs and merely slapped it away. Traveling with the lance's momentum, Sunny was thrown to the side as well.

Landing on her backside, the Grimm took the opportunity to rush Sunny, barreling forward at full speed. Sunny jumped up to her feet and quickly dodged out of the way of the Grimm's attacks, and immediately retaliated by delivering speedy jabs to its side. The Grimm roared with anger and turned towards Sunny. It brought its claws down with all its strength but Sunny jumped back just in time. Pointing her lance at the beast's legs, she pulled the trigger on the handle of her lance. Directly hitting the ursa's leg, it fell to the ground, flat on its stomach. Sunny jumped in the air, and brought her lance down directly on to the ursa's head, ending it for good.

Satisfied with her work, Sunny turned around to continue on her journey, but met eyes with a blue haired boy wearing a blue button up shirt and black vest.

"Hi there sweetie" he said "I'm Cye."

"Sunny! Nice to meet you!" She replied extending her hand.

"Please, the pleasure is all mine darling" Cye said shaking her hand with both of his.

"Riiight" Sunny replied wiping her hand on her scarf. "So where are we supposed to head in this direction?" Sunny asked pointing forward.

"I'll follow you anywhere dear" Cye said leaning in.

"Okay, let's go this way" Sunny said walking forward.

"After you" Cye gestured.

After about half an hour of walking, Sunny began to dread her future with her new partner. She was tired of his weird advances and "romantic" offers.

"I'm just saying, we would make a great couple" Cye said.

Sunny sighed, "Sorry that I have to do this, but you're kinda annoying"

"Sorry for wha-" Cye began but felt Sunny's palm on his forehead.

"And I thought _I_ was…. affectionate…" Cye said as he felt his strength falter and his eyes grow heavy.

"There we go" Sunny said wiping her hands on her scarf again. Pulling Cye by the collar of his vest, the duo continued through the emerald forest. That is, until Sunny heard more rustling in the bushes nearby.

"Oh not again" Sunny said as she turned towards the noise. "Please don't be another urs-" She pleaded but stopped as a Death Stalker emerged from the brush.

"Oh boy." She stated.


	8. Volume 1 Chapter 4

'Flying through the air is loud' was Tyran's first thought. He placed his hands over his wolf ears hoping to stop, or at least help, the deafening white noise of the wind, that replaced all other sounds.

Noticing the quickly incoming trees, Tyran activated his semblance, smashing through branches of various sizes. He landed on the ground in a kneeling position, creating a sizeable crater. Tyran dusted himself off before beginning his journey to the temple.

The Emerald Forest gave off mysterious and ominous vibes. He would occasionally hear a growl or a scream pierce the quiet atmosphere. It was pretty intimidating to be honest.

Pushing past brush, he came into an opening where two other students had already partnered up. A large boy with brown hair in an almost pompadour fashion, and a smaller, leaner boy with a green mohawk.

"Well what do we have here?" the brown haired boy asked. "Another faunus freak?"

Tyran ignored him and turned around and began walking away, but the boy spoke again. "Yeah, run away with your tail tucked between your legs, dog! Run all the way to mommy!"

Screaming in rage, Tyran pulled out his tonfas and jumped towards the bully. Unleashing an onslaught of punches and kicks, but they were blocked by the other boy's large flanged mace. Jumping back, the boy pressed a button on his mace, causing it to open and fire. Tyran rolled forward towards the boy and threw an uppercut that was a direct hit.

The stranger stumbled back and glared at the mohawk student who had previously been standing by. "Russel!" he shouted.

Russel quickly noticed and drew twin daggers from his sides. "Sorry Cardin!" he apologized. Russel dashed in bringing his daggers down on Tyran which were blocked, but Tyran did not foresee Cardin's attack from the side. He flew to the side as a result of the blow and held his side.

Flipping his tonfas in his hands, Tyran rushed in again, only to be knocked back by a kick from Russel.

"One more time" Tyran muttered as he once again dashed forwards. He tried to activate his semblance, but had already used up a large portion of his aura during his landing. As a result, the beating was just as painful as ever. Tyran dropped to his knees with his arms barely holding him up. Cardin strolled over and brought his mace above his head. Bringing the mace down with full force, Cardin stopped as it was suddenly knocked out of his hands.

A figure jumped down from a tree. She had long blonde hair, pulled back into a tight ponytail. She wore a, waitress outfit? And had white bunny ears. In her hands, the stranger held a revolver gunblade that was currently smoking from the end.

"So this is your definition of a fair fight?! You two make me sick." She shouted.

"Tch. You aren't worth it." Cardin spat, picking up his mace and turning around with Russel. They began to walk away as another shot was fired, narrowly missing the side of Cardin's face. He spun around to see the girl pointing the gun at him.

"Still got four shots left." She threatened. Cardin gritted his teeth and began to run away with his partner.

The girl turned around to face a battered and bruised Tyran. She offered her hand to him and he took it.

"Mika Sol" she introduced as she pulled him up to his feet.

"Tyran Viska" he replied.

'Thank god! Another faunus, this is great!' he thought.

"You alright? To be honest you don't look so good." Mika asked.

"Yup! I'm good!" Tyran replied happily with a thumbs up.

"Well, I guess we better be on our way. Where're we supposed to head anyways? I kinda got lost on the way here." Mika said.

"I think the temple's this way" Tyran answered pointing forward.

"Lead the way" Mika offered politely.

Navigating the Emerald Forest was a little easier with another person with you, at least you won't get lonely. Although, while Mika _did_ save Tyran, she seemed to be a little…distant, as if focusing on something else. She was constantly looking around, scrutinizing every little bush and tree. Was she just trying to be prepared for Grimm? Regardless, Tyran was ecstatic that his partner is a faunus. He felt like he could be himself around her, and not be judged or bullied by humans.

After what seemed like only a couple minutes, the partners entered a large clearing, exiting the Emerald Forest altogether. In front of them stood a large dilapidated temple, with numerous pedestals populating it. Most of the pedestals were empty, but it seemed like they were all supposed to hold chess pieces. The white knight, rook, and black bishop pieces were missing.

Tyran and Mika walked over and studied the pieces left.

"How about the black knight?" Tyran suggested. "It'll be like symbolism or something"

"Sure I guess" Mika shrugged.

Just then two more students burst from the trees, except one was carrying the other over her shoulder. Suddenly, a death stalker crushed the trees, following them.

"Wha-" Tyran asked but was cut off by a scream. It seems that the boy who was being carried had just woken up and noticed the current scenario. However, the girl continued to carry him and pulled a lance out from her back. Slamming it into the ground, she grunted as she flung them both over to the temple, where Mika and Tyran were still watching.

Mika looked over to the strangers and recognized one. "Sunny?" she wondered.

"Mika!" The girl named Sunny exclaimed.

"Death stalker!" screamed the boy as he pointed at the impending Grimm. He jumped up and looked around and noticed the chess pieces. Picking up another black knight, he grabbed Sunny's hand. "We gotta get outta here!"

Pulling her hand away, Sunny looked at him sternly. "Why? Why should we run Cye? This is what we're supposed to do as hunters!" She pushed him aside and once again launched herself by means of her golden lance, straight towards the Grimm.

"Sunny's gonna get herself killed! We have to help her, c'mon Tyran!" Mika exclaimed as she pulled out her gunblade. Tyran merely nodded and followed Mika into battle, leaving Cye behind.

"You're all crazy!" Cye yelled at them.

Sunny landed directly in front of the death stalker's face, causing it to immediately attack by swiping its gigantic claw at her. Jumping back, Sunny avoided the attack and pulled the trigger on her lance, unleashing several shots which were blocked by the grimm's bone armor.

Suddenly, Mika leapt from the sky bringing her blade across the grimm's face, damaging its eyes. Its screeches of pain were cut short as the barrel of Tyran's shotgun entered its mouth. Blasting it from the inside, Tyran jumped back, giving himself time to reload.

The death stalker stumbled backwards and raised its claws and roared in anger.

'This thing's pretty tough' thought Tyran. 'But I don't need their help, Mika and I could take this easily'. The death stalker began to charge them and swiped quickly at Mika. It was a direct hit that sent her flying back.

"JUST RUN! WE CAN'T WIN!" screamed Cye.

Sunny turned around to reply back to him. "WE'RE NOT RUNNING! THIS IS OUR JOB!" However, when she turned back, she saw the grimm striking its tail down at her.

"Sunny!" cried Tyran.

"Hmph." She heard Cye say behind her as she felt arms wrap around her. In an instant, she had disappeared and reappeared several feet behind from her previous spot. The grimm's stinger stuck into the ground, and it struggled to remove it. Sunny felt the arms slip off of her as Cye collapsed behind her, breathing heavily.

"I...hate…all of you…." he gasped.

Sunny laughed weakly in response and Mika ran over, slightly scratched up.

"So, what's the game plan? Cause we don't have much time" Sunny asked gesturing to the annoyed grimm.

"I think I've got an idea" Mika replied. "Think you can manage one more buddy?" she said to Cye.

"No." Cye stated simply.

"That's great" Mika said patting his shoulder.

"Ughhh" he moaned.

"So here's what we're going to do" Mika said whispering. Tyran walked over to the group.

"That's the worst plan ever!" exclaimed Cye.

"I think you mean **best** , don't you Cye" Mika said rolling up her sleeves in a threatening manner.

"I didn't hear, what are we doing?" Tyran asked Mika.

"Don't worry about it! We got this!" Sunny replied patting the wolf ears on his head. He winced and Sunny and Cye strolled off towards the grimm just as it was freeing its tail.

Mika stood next to him, arms folded, and a smirk on her face.

"What's going on?" Tyran repeated.

"Nothing, just shoot when you hear the signal" Mika replied.

Tyran shrugged as he held the double barreled shotgun in his hand. The duo stood in front of the grimm as it stared them down.

"NOW!" shouted Mika.

Cye grabbed Sunny and the two disappeared. Mika and Tyran unloaded onto the grimm which forced it to raise its claws in defense, blocking the bullets from its face. Suddenly, Tyran heard a scream which was quickly getting louder. He looked over to see Mika hold out her free arm and catch Cye, stopping him from crashing into the ground. Tyran looked up in the sky and saw Sunny falling down with her lance pointed straight at the ground, directly above the death stalker. Mika and Tyran continued their barrage until Sunny impaled the grimm directly through its head, killing it. A shockwave was sent throughout the area, rustling the leaves of nearby trees.

"Alright, NOW can we leave?" Cye asked not caring about the answer.

The four all walked out of the forest, only to see a girl in red running up the side of a cliff with a nevermore hooked on her scythe. She reached the top and leaped into the air decapitating the enormous grimm. The girl stood atop the cliff, gazing down below as rose petals flickered around her.

"Whoa…" was the all the group could say.

"Wait a minute" said Cye eventually. "How are we supposed to get up that cliff?!"

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, and Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester" spoke Ozpin as an applause came from the crowd.

"Tyran Viska, Sunny Keusik, Cye Lureri, and Mika Sol. The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team MSTC (mystic = a shade of purple), led by Mika Sol." The crowd cheered yet again and Tyran couldn't help but feel a little proud. It was kinda like the cheers at the faunus rallies and movements he would always go to.

The four walked off stage as another team was called up. He watched them walk up until Mika elbowed him to get his attention.

"Bet you Pyrrha's gonna be the team leader. There's not a doubt in my mind. We'll be like army generals sending their pawns to fight." Mika stated proudly.

"Pawns?" Tyran questioned.

"Led by Jaune Arc" Ozpin announced.

"What?!" Mika said nearly pulling her hair out.

"Yeah! Go Jaune!" cheered Cye nearby.

Tyran leaned against a wall. 'Beacon's going to be pretty interesting' he thought.


	9. Volume 1 Chapter 5

Cye opened his eyes slowly as he sat up in his new bed. The dorms of Beacon were very nice, and even co-ed. Although, Sunny and Mika won't give him the time of day. He rubbed his eyes and looked over to a digital clock on a nearby desk which read 7:30. Still way too early for him, but he remembered that classes start today. With a heavy sigh, he stood up in his blue flannel pants and t shirt.

He looked over to his sleeping teammates. Tyran was in an awkward and uncomfortable looking position with his limbs going all different directions and snoring. Mika slept on her back, splayed like a starfish and her rabbit ears were going in opposite directions which he had to admit, was kind of cute. Cye yawned as he stretched but stopped as he heard the door to their room open. He gazed over to it and saw Sunny walking into the room in sweat pants and her usual yellow tank top.

"What're you doing up so early?" he questioned.

"Morning jog! It's important to stay healthy!" Sunny answered while wiping sweat from her brow.

Cye shrugged as he walked into the bathroom to get ready for the day. The cold water of the shower immediately woke him up.

'You know' he thought 'I wonder if this team will actually work? I mean, Mika kinda ignores me, Sunny's just being polite, and I have barely talked to Tyran at all. Can this really work?'

Cye reached for the handle to shut off the shower. 'Calm down Cye, it's only been one day. It has to work, for my sake. What will I do once this is over? Maybe Vi will forget about the debt? No, that's stupid, she won't forget.'

Getting out of the shower, Cye looked over to his new school uniform hanging on the door handle. With hesitation, he put on the black suit with golden details. He ditched the tie and instead left the top buttons opened to display his upper chest.

He walked out of the bathroom to see Tyran just getting up and Mika still fast asleep. Sunny was currently reading a book and Tyran walked over to use the bathroom.

"Should we wake her up?" Cye suggested. "Our class starts at 9:00"

Sunny shrugged in response, so he walked over to where Mika was sleeping. He tapped her lightly on the shoulder, but no response.

"Mika" he whispered. "Wake up"

The girl remained fast asleep, not responding to him at all.

"Mika" Cye said a bit louder as he tapped her a little harder on the shoulder, but to no avail.

He sighed and then took a deep breath. "MIKA!" he shouted.

"AHHH!" screamed the girl as she sat bolt upright and immediately punched Cye in the face as a reflex.

Cye fell flat on the floor "What was that for?!" he demanded holding his cheek.

"What do you mean 'what was that for?'?! Why'd you scream like that?!" Mika countered.

"You wouldn't wake up! The school could have been destroyed by Grimm and you'd still be asleep!" Cye said getting up from the floor.

Mika rolled her eyes as she got up and walked into the bathroom as Tyran exited, dressed properly in the school uniform.

"I guess she's not a morning person" Sunny joked.

"No kidding" Cye said still in pain from the blow. "Do you know what our first class is today Tyran?"

Tyran sat down in a chair, folded his arms, and shook his head silently. "Alright. Sunny?" Cye asked.

"I think it's…Professor Port?" Sunny answered looking at a paper. "We should probably head there after Mika gets done."

Tyran nodded at her suggestion still not saying a word. 'Why? Have we done something wrong? I don't think so. Maybe he's just not the friendliest guy' Cye thought. Mika closed the bathroom door behind her, looking disappointed in her new attire.

"How are we supposed to fight in a skirt? It's so uncomfortable" Mika stated.

"I kinda like it, it's like a skirt, but for combat!" Sunny replied.

"I think that the uniforms are only supposed to be used for classes, not combat." Tyran said finally looking at the girls.

"Well, we should get to class, we're gonna be late if we keep talking about the uniforms" Sunny informed.

"Wait! As team leader, I decide what we do. I say we…should, uhh, go to class…." Mika said pointing at the rest of the group.

"Thank you team leader and your infinite wisdom" Cye said sarcastically as they all walked out the door.

"Hey, you wanna go?" Mika said raising her fist to Cye but stopped as they all heard the sound of power tools and hammers coming from the room next to theirs. The team exchanged quizzical glances before moving on to their class.

Entering the classroom, Cye noticed that most of the students had already arrived and taken seats. Mika led the team to the one side of the classroom where Cye observed an odd looking crate situated in the middle of the room. A low growl suddenly came from the crate, causing him to flinch.

He sat down at the end of the row, next to Mika who was currently glaring at the empty spots near them.

Professor Port was a stout man with a bushy grey mustache. He walked over to the middle of the classroom. "Well, it looks like class can-" he started but was cut off as the doors of the classroom slammed opened as Teams RWBY and JNPR entered. Professor Port sighed. "Begin."

"Monsters! _Demons_! Prowlers of the night! Yes the creatures of grimm have many names, but I, merely refer to them as prey haha!" he joked. The deafening silence of the room was his only response. "Uhhhh, and you shall too upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsman! _Huntresses"_ he said winking at the female students. "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves. From what you ask? Why, the very world!

"Yeah!" shouted a random student in agreement who quickly realized his outburst and embarrassingly sat back down.

"That is what you are training to become, but first, a story" the professor continued. "A tale of a young, handsome man, me! When I was a boy…"

Cye felt his eyes grow heavy at the professor's extensive story. He began to close them until Mika violently elbowed him awake.

"Hey!" Cye whispered louder than he intended to.

"Ahem!" Professor Port said directing it to him. "In the end, the beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!" He bowed and continued. "The moral of the story, a true huntsman must be honorable. A true huntsman must be dependable. A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Cye gazed over to his team, wondering if they were going to volunteer but he heard a different voice. A dreaded one.

"I do sir!" Weiss Schnee said raising her hand.

"Well then! Let's find out. Step forward and face your opponent" Professor Port replied gesturing to the cage which was quickly becoming more aggressive by the second.


	10. Volume 1 Chapter 6

Here's another chapter for Labor Day! Also, the second part of the Badge and the Burden seemed superfluous to add, as I could not figure out a way to add onto the chapter and make it longer than two pages. Therefore, I'm just going to move onto Jaunedice. I hope you enjoy!

'He must be holding back somehow' thought Mika as she sat in the Beacon sparring room. She was currently watching Jaune's match with Cardin Winchester. Well, match was a strong word. It was more of a beating.

The rest of Team MSTC sat with her, just as engrossed in the match, except for Tyran, who was currently trying hard not to fall asleep.

'I mean, no one can be _that_ bad and still get into Beacon right?' she continued. Jaune used his sword as a crutch as he breathed heavily, trying to catch his breath. Across from him stood Cardin who was laughing mockingly. With the last bit of his strength, Jaune rushed at Cardin unleashing a battle cry but Cardin merely leaned to the side, dodging the attack. Jaune fell forward and Carding immediately retaliated by slamming his mace against him.

An audible "oooh" was heard from the rest of her team, but Jaune did not give up. He threw his shield down and grasped his sword with both hands. Attempting his frontal assault technique again, he dashed towards Cardin and brought his sword down, but it was merely blocked by Cardin.

Cardin easily pushed back Jaune and threatened him, "This is the part where you lose" he said.

"Over my dead b-oomph" Jaune began but was cut off as Cardin delivered a knee to his stomach. Jaune crumpled to the ground holding his stomach and Cardin brought up his mace. Ready to finish the match, he began to bring it down on Jaune but stopped as a buzzer rang, signaling that the match was over.

"Cardin, that's enough" Glynda stated as she walked to the center of the arena. "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament-style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match. Mr. Arc it's been weeks now, please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack. Or when it is better to move to a more…defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a beowolf, now would we?"

"Speak for yourself" Cardin said picking up his mace and walking away.

"Remember everyone! The Vytal festival is only a few months away, it won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale so keep practicing!" Glynda announced. "Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!" The bell echoed throughout the arena as students gathered their belongings to leave.

Sunny happily clapped, obviously excited for the future tournament, however the rest of the team was not so similar.

'He's holding back.' Mika thought. 'What's his special ability? Semblance? Power?'

"Mika?" Sunny asked. Mika snapped out of her train of thought as she gazed over to her team who were all staring at her.

"Wha- What?" Mika inquired.

"We were asking you if you agree with us that Cardin is a bully" Sunny answered.

"Man, I just kind of feel bad for Jaune" Cye said. "Cardin's been pushing him around since the first day of school."

"Maybe not for longer…." Mika whispered mostly to herself.

"What?" Cye asked.

"Nothing." Mika replied plainly. "Come on guys, let's get lunch."

"So, there we were, in the middle of the night." Nora began.

"It was day." Ren corrected her.

"We were surrounded by ursi" Nora continued.

"They were beowolves" Ren corrected again.

"Dozens of them!" Nora shouted standing in her seat.

"This is the best story ever" Sunny whispered completely engrossed with her elbows on the table. Mika rolled her eyes and looked over to Tyran who was currently asleep on their lunch table.

Ren sighed "Two of them."

"But they were no match! And in the end, Ren and I took them down! And made a boatload of lien selling ursa skin rugs!" Nora finished.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now" Ren explained. Mika sighed as she sipped a glass of water.

"Jaune? Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked turning towards him.

"Huh?" said Jaune, evidence that he was not previously paying attention. "Oh! Yeah! Why?"

"It's just that you seem a little…not…okay" Ruby said carefully.

"Yeah, plus Cardin kinda kicked your-" Mika added but was stopped by Sunny slapping her hand over her mouth.

"Guys, I'm fine, seriously. Look!?" Jaune answered as he gave a weak thumbs up. The room quieted as the teams suddenly heard an obnoxious laugh coming from a couple tables away. Cardin and the rest of his team were currently mocking a rabbit faunus girl.

"Jaune, Cardin has been picking on you since the first week of school" Pyrrha said.

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nahhh! He just likes to mess around, you know, practical jokes!" Jaune defended.

"He's a bully" Ruby stated bluntly.

"Oh please! Name one time he's _bullied_ me." Jaune said sarcastically. The teams thought back to the many occasions in which Cardin had been a jerk to Jaune. This included knocking his books down, getting him caught in a doorway, and even launching him out of the school by means of their rocket propelled lockers.

"I didn't land far from the school!" Jaune replied.

"Jaune you know if you ever need help you can just ask." Pyrrha offered.

"Oh! You'll indulge him but not me?!" Mika nearly shouted across the table, but Pyrrha ignored her.

"Ooh! We'll break his legs!" Nora suggested excitedly.

"I think that's a bit excessive, even for Cardin" Cye replied apathetically as he rolled vegetables around on his plate with his fork. Nora merely shrugged in response.

"Guys really! It's fine!" Jaune said standing up. "Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everyone."

"Oww! That hurts!" came a girl's voice. Everyone looked over to where Cardin and his team were currently ridiculing the same faunus girl. Cardin had her ears in her hands and continuously pulled on them.

"Please stop" the girl said.

"I told you it was real" Cardin said looking over to his teammates.

"What a freak!" one of them replied. Mika ran her hands across her ears and began to stand up. 'He needs to be taught a lesson' she thought. She also noticed that Tyran immediately stood up with her, awake from his slumber. They both glared at Cardin, prepared for a fight, that is until Cye and Sunny grabbed them both.

"It's not worth it guys" Ruby said.

"Ruby's right, fighting won't solve anything" Sunny pleaded. Mika sat back down hesitantly but Tyran did not.

"…People like Cardin only respond to violence" Tyran muttered as she pushed Sunny and Cye away before walking out of the cafeteria.

"Yes, yes! Prior to the faunus rights revolution, more popular known as the faunus war, humankind was quite quite adamant about centralizing faunus population in menagerie." Professor Oobleck explained as he zipped around the classroom. "Now! This must feel like ancient history to many of you, but it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why the…repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!"

'And I thought Professor Port was weird' Mika thought as she leaned back in her seat.

"Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your faunus heritage?" Oobleck continued. Mika noticed that only a couple students raised their hands, including the rabbit faunus girl from earlier, Tyran, and herself.

"Dreadful! Simply dreadful!" Oobleck stated. "Remember students it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence. I mean, I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?"

Weiss raised her hand in response. "The battle at Fort Castle" She answered proudly.

"Precisely! And! Who can tell me the advantage the faunus had over General Lagoon's forces?" Oobleck said.

"Hey!" Jaune said as he awoke from Cardin flicking paper at him.

"Mr. Arc!" Oobleck said as he rushed over to Jaune. "Finally contributing to class! This is excellent, excellent! What is the answer?"

"Uhhh, the answer, the advantage, uhh, the faunus had…over that guy's…stuff, uhh binoculars!" Jaune replied confidently. The class laughed at his response.

'What's his secret?' Mika thought. 'He's just not taking this seriously. He must truly be a genius. What is his power?'

Oobleck sipped his cup slowly. "Very funny Mr. Arc. Cardin! Perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject?"

Cardin leaned back in his chair. "Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."

Mika clenched her fists tightly. What a complete insensitive jerk! "You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you Cardin?" Pyrrha asked.

"What? You got a problem?" Cardin threatened.

"No, I have the answer. It's night vision. Many faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark" Pyrrha replied. Cardin growled at her response.

"General Lagoon was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the faunus in their sleep." Blake added. "His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured. Perhaps, if he paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Cardin stood up in his seat, ready for a fight. "Mr. Winchester, please take your seat" Oobleck sighed. Jaune giggled at Cardin's shutdown. "You _and_ Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings. Now! Moving on!"

The bell signaled the end of class and Mika packed up her things.

"Well _that,_ was interesting" Sunny said as they walked out.

"Yeah, I don't think he blinked once" Cye replied shivering.

"I was more referring to Jaune's situation, but yeah, Oobleck too" Sunny said. "What do you think Tyran?"

Tyran merely grunted in response before walking away from the group, most likely heading back to their dorm since classes were finished for the day.

Sunny sighed at Tyran's response. "You comin' Mika?"

"I'm gonna stay for a bit. I need to ask Oobleck a question about, uhh, homework!" Mika answered.

"Really? Since when did you take an interest in your education?" Cye teased. Mika glared at him and began to roll up her sleeve. "Cause I think that's great! Education is important, come on Sunny! Let's head back!" He quickly added. Mika looked back at the classroom and hid behind a pillar, waiting.

Jaune walked out of the classroom with Cardin who quickly shoved him to the ground. Pyrrha helped him to his feet.

"You know, I really will break his legs" Pyrrha offered but Jaune only sighed in response. Pyrrha's mood immediately changed though. "I have an idea!" She said triumphantly before grabbing Jaune and pulling him away. "Here! Come with me!"

'What's going on?' Mika thought as she followed them a little farther behind.

Pyrrha and Jaune walked out onto the roof of the school. The night sky was teeming with beautiful stars. A cool breeze swept across the area.

"Pyrrha I know I'm going through a hard time right now, but I'm not _that_ depressed" Jaune said looking over the edge of the building. "I can always be a farmer, or…something."

"N-NO!" Pyrrha exclaimed pulling Jaune away from the edge. "That's not why I brought you up here! Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class and that you're still not the strongest of fighters, so…I want to help you!"

"What?" Jaune questioned.

"We can train up here after class where no one can bother us!" Pyrrha said hopefully.

"You…think I need help?" Jaune said downcast.

"N-no! No, that's not what I meant" Pyrrha defended.

"But you just said it" Jaune replied.

"Jaune, everybody needs a little push from time to time. It doesn't make you any different from the rest of us!" Pyrrha said. "You made it to Beacon! That speaks volumes of what you're capable of."

"You're wrong" Jaune said turning away from Pyrrha. "I-I don't belong here…."

"That's a terrible thing to say, of course you do!" Pyrrha responded.

"No, I don't!" Jaune said angrily. He sighed quietly. "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon."

"Wha-What do you mean?" Pyrrha inquired.

"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any test, I didn't earn my spot at this academy!" Jaune declared. "I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied…."

"What?" Pyrrha repeated in disbelief. "But why?"

"Cause this is what I've always wanted to be! My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! And I wanted to be one too….I was just never good enough." Jaune said.

"Then let me help you" Pyrrha offered.

"I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress, I want to be the hero!"

"J-Jaune I-"

"I'm tired of being the lovable idiot stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand?! If I can't do this on my own, then what good am I?!"

Pyrrha reached forward but Jaune retreated. "Just leave me alone, okay?" he said.

"If…that's what you think is best…." Pyrrha said walking away. She gave one final look at Jaune before opening the door back into the building. She lowered her head in shame.

"What do I do?" Pyrrha whispered.

"You know" came a new voice. Pyrrha looked up quickly to see Mika leaning against the wall next to the door. "All today I thought Jaune had some sort of hidden ability. Some special power maybe? And it looks like I was right, a special power over you" she taunted.

"I'm afraid, I don't know what you are talking about" Pyrrha said solemnly. She began to walk down the hall, away from Mika.

"You know he's not gonna make it right? Jaune'll be on the next airship outta here." Mika called to her. "You should be focusing on our rematch rather than waste your time with him."

Pyrrha ignored Mika's opinions and continued walking.

Mika smirked as she walked back to the Team MSTC dorm, where the rest of her teammates were studying.


	11. Volume 1 Chapter 7

Mika sighed as she trudged back through the dorms of Beacon. She had just finished her night shift at the café. It was nice that students were allowed part time jobs since Mika needed _some_ source of income. However, the night shift was brutal, there were so many people.

Mika finally reached her hallway, but stopped when she heard voices. She hid around the corner, eavesdropping on their conversation.

"-And now Pyrrha won't even talk to me…I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea….I'm a failure." one voice said.

'Jaune?' Mika thought.

"Nope!" the other voice said simply.

'And Ruby?' Mika continued.

"Nope?" Jaune asked.

"Nope!" repeated Ruby. "You're a leader now Jaune, you're not allowed to be a failure."

"But, what if I'm a failure at being a leader?" he inquired.

"Hmmm, nope!" Ruby said again.

"Heh, you know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff."

"Nope! Jaune, maybe you were a failure when you were a kid, and you might have even been a failure the first day we meet. But, you can't be one now. You know why?"

"Uhhh, because…."

"Because it's not just about you anymore, you've got a team now Jaune. We both do! And if we fail, we'll just be bringing them down with us. We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second."

"She's right" Mika said stepping out into the hallway.

"Mika?" Jaune and Ruby said in unison, as they both thought they were previously alone.

"Right now, you're bringing your team down completely" Mika lectured. "Team JNPR can be so much more if they just follow the path to success. But it's the job of the leader to pave that path."

Jaune looked down in self-disappointment.

"You've got a good team Jaune, and they've been carrying your butt since the day were named team leader" she continued. "You need to start pulling your own weight, no matter how bad of a hunter you are."

"Thank you" Jaune said "Both of you"

"Also" Mika said grasping Jaune by the collar. "If you tell **any** of them about what I just said. I'm coming for you." She let go and walked down the hall giving a two fingered wave. In the distance she heard Ruby say. "Well, have a good night Jaune."

Mika opened the door to her team's dorm to reveal Tyran sitting in bed reading his scroll. She scanned the room and saw that no one else was there.

"Where's Sunny and Cye?" Mika asked.

"They went to go get a book from the library" Tyran replied with a smile. "How was work?"

Mika looked at him quizzically. "It was…alright. But, I have a question for you."

"Shoot" Tyran said jovially.

"Why is it that you always act to distant and apathetic towards everyone else except me?" She questioned.

Tyran's expression quickly changed. He looked down, avoiding eye contact with her. "I…I don't feel safe around humans, only faunus do I feel comfortable."

"Well that's too bad isn't it?!" Mika said sarcastically. "Cause they're your team and you're going to have to live with it."

"You don't understand!" Tyran defended. "You don't know what I've been through!"

"Whatever, you have been through it isn't bad enough to take it out on your teammates!" She countered.

"I lost my family! And I've been searching for them night and day!" He said. Mika then thought back to all the classes and lunches he slept through.

'I thought he was just lazy' she thought.

"I don't expect you to understand something like that!" Tyran shouted standing up to confront her.

"…You're right….I never knew my family…" Mika replied softly, crossing her arms. Tyran's previously angry demeanor changed to one of sympathy and pity.

"Mika….I-I'm sorry…I didn't-" he began.

"No. It's fine. It's just, your teammates don't deserve this." She said placing her hand on his shoulder. "Well I'm beat!" Mika said, quickly changing the mood as she collapsed on her bed. "Night Tyran!"

"Good night Mika" he replied quietly.

'Jeez, I should become a teacher with all these speeches I'm giving' she thought as she closed her eyes. Sleep quickly overtook her due to her long day.

The next day….

The endless sea of red that was the Forest of Forever Fall was breathtaking.

"Yes students, the Forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But! We are not here to sightsee" explained Glynda. "Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest, and I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so. Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest is full of the creatures of grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates! We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun!"

Mika looked down at the large jar in her hand. She gazed over to Jaune who seemed pretty distraught as he walked over with...Cardin? Why Cardin? Is he that poor of a leader that he doesn't even go with his team?

'Did he even listen to me?!' she thought as the rest of team MSTC walked off. After walking for a short distance, the reached a nice looking clearing, perfect for extracting sap.

"Here, Sunny, let me help you. Tyran offered as he walked over to Sunny who was currently trying to figure out how the spigot was supposed to fit in the tree.

"Thanks Tyran!" she replied cheerily, patting his ears. He smiled as he pushed the tool into the tree, causing sap to immediately flow. Cye looked over to Mika completely confused by Tyran's new demeanor. Mika simply returned a smirk.

It only took the team a couple of minutes to finish, and four o'clock was still a long time away. In the meantime, Cye relaxed against trees while Sunny and Tyran were sparring together.

Mika smiled. It seems like things are looking up for team MSTC. She produced a cloth from her black apron and began to clean her gunblade. Every nook and cranny was finally going to be free of dust. Once she was finished, Mika looked up at the red trees. Red leaves fluttered through the air, and the atmosphere was so calming.

That is, until the sound of glass shattering broke the silence of the forest.

"What was that?" Cye asked getting up.

"Meh, probably nothing" Mika said walking towards where the sound originated. "I'll go check it out, you guys stay here."

She began to run towards the sound. Hopefully it wasn't something too bad. Suddenly, Jaune and team CRDL came into view. Not wanting to aware them of her presence, Mika jumped up into a nearby tree and looked down at the current situation.

Cardin picked up Jaune by the collar after punching him to the ground. "I'm gonna make sure they send you back to mommy in teeny tiny pieces." Cardin threatened.

'Well, Jaune had a good run' Mika thought. 'Actually, on second thought I guess it wasn't that good….'

"I don't care what you do to me. But you are not messing with my team." Jaune stated looking Cardin in the eyes.

"What? You think talk like that makes you tough?" Cardin said. "You think you're a big strong man now?"

Jaune merely smiled in response, causing Cardin to become even angrier. He reeled back and punched Jaune directly in the face, but there was a sudden flash of bright light.

'What is that?!' Mika thought covering her eyes.

"Ahhh!" Cardin said holding his hand in pain.

Jaune looked down at his hands in disbelief but was soon knocked back to the ground by one of Cardin's teammates.

"Let's see how much of a man you really are" Cardin said stepping towards Jaune. But suddenly a low growl erupted from the bushes. A gigantic ursa stepped forward and roared. It looked down at Cardin and noticed the sap that still stained his armor.

"That's a big ursa!" shouted Russel as the team ran away, leaving Cardin behind. The ursa swiped its paw at Cardin and knocked him to the side. Jaune cowered in fear, but the ursa paid no attention to him, as all it wanted was the sap. The ursa towered over Cardin as he crawled backwards. Cardin put up his mace in defense but it was merely knocked away like a twig.

Cardin got up quickly and attempted to run away but the ursa intercepted him by jumping in front and knocking him back down on the ground. Cardin cursed at his futile attempts to run away or defend himself. The grimm rushed towards him and brought its claws down, prepared to finish Cardin off. However, Jaune rushed forwards and defended Cardin with his shield.

'J-Jaune?' Mika thought. 'But why?'

Jaune overpowered the ursa and pushed back, delivering a slash across its body in the process. The ursa retaliated, but Jaune was quicker as he rolled to the side. The ursa tried again, but Jaune merely jumped over its claw swipe. Unfortunately, as Jaune was falling he could not protect himself, so the ursa punched Jaune square in the torso.

He immediately got back up and rushed towards it again. Jaune leapt forward but the ursa just knocked him back down again. The ursa ran forward to Jaune and roared at him. Jaune unleashed a battle cry as well as he dashed forwards one more time. The two met, both in the middle of attacking, but Jaune was defenseless since he lowered his shield. But…something happened. His shield was immediately brought back up, but it didn't seem by his own doing. He blocked the ursa's attack and sliced it across the neck, decapitating it.

'What was that?!' Mika thought. She then looked down from her perch and saw Ruby, Weiss, and Pyrrha holding out her hand.

'Wait a minute' she continued. 'How did she…unless she can….HER SEMBLANCE IS POLARITY! That makes so much sense!'

Mika smirked at her new discovery. 'This means that the next time we fight, I'm gonna have the upper hand.' She then looked back down to Jaune who held his hand out to help Cardin to his feet. 'I should probably congratulate him. I was wrong, he'll make a great leader.'

Mika prepared to jump down from the branch of the tree, but she suddenly felt something wrap around her leg. "Wha-?!" she began but stopped as it quickly pulled her deeper into the forest.

She was dragged into a clearing, but nothing was there. Suddenly, she heard someone chuckling came from somewhere. Mika jumped up and circled around looking for the source of the noise.

"Who's there?!" She demanded.

The laughter suddenly ceased as she now heard a male's voice. "You know" they said. "Maybe if you had won, you would survive this" Suddenly, a huge metal ball came crashing down from the sky. Mika jumped back and it slammed into the ground, forming a large crater.

Once the dust settled Mika asked again. "Who's there?!" However, her only response was more chuckling. Mika angrily flicked the chamber of her revolver and pulled back the hammer. Blindly, she fired all six shots into the forest.

The voice came once again. "It's that kind of temper that made you lose the first time."

"Show yourself! Or are you too much of a coward?!" She taunted.

"Mika!" called a different voice. It was Sunny's. Suddenly, the rest of her team burst into the clearing.

"What happened to you? Where'd you go?" Cye asked.

"That's not important! We're under attack right now!" Mika informed. The team all readied their weapons all facing different directions, so they could not be surprised.

"You kids aren't worth the effort" said a new voice, a woman's voice. Cye's eyes widened and his muscles locked. After about a minute, with no attacks, Mika spoke. "Alright guys, let's head back, carefully…."

Later….

"Soooo, are we just gonna talk about what just happened in the forest?" Sunny asked the rest of the team MSTC. They had made it back to the school safely and were currently in their dorm.

"I don't know what to talk about, it was weird" Mika answered leaning against a wall.

"Hey Cye, you alright?" Tyran asked to the distressed teen. He was currently looking out the window and had not said a single word on the way back.

"Huh? Uhh, y-yeah, I'm g-good" he said shakily.

Tyran gave Mika a quizzical look but she just shrugged. "So what do you think this is about? Why would we be targets?" Sunny asked changing the subject back.

"I have no idea, but we should all be careful…." Mika warned.

Meanwhile….

Pyrrha and Jaune stood atop the roof of Beacon as she shoved him to the ground.

"Hey!" Jaune said.

"Your stance is all wrong. You need to be wider and closer the ground" she explained.

Mika opened the door to the roof to reveal Pyrrha standing above Jaune who was currently laying on the ground. The duo looked back at her.

"I'll, uhh, I'll come back later" she said closing the door.

"No! Wait! Mika, it's not what you think!" Jaune shouted.


	12. Volume 1 Chapter 8

"Thanks for inviting us to come along!" Sunny thanked Ruby, as they walked through downtown Vale.

"Of course!" Ruby replied. "It's a shame that Mika and Cye couldn't make it though."

"Well Mika had work, and Cye said he had to study for classes" Sunny said turning to Ruby. 'Which now that I think about it, is a bit odd. He's never shown any interest in classes before…oh well!' She thought.

"Yes, thank you!" Tyran agreed happily.

Sunny was glad that Tyran had come with them. Not that she didn't feel comfortable around team RWBY, it was just that it seemed almost like a form of team bonding. 'Which Tyran had never taken an interest in before either' Sunny thought. 'In fact, he's been a lot more friendly with _everyone_ recently. I wonder what happened? But, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth!' Sunny continued her thought with a smile.

"Still too bad they couldn't come, it seems like a pretty big event." Ruby said. "I mean, just look at Weiss."

"The Vytal Festival!" Weiss stated wide eyed. "Oh this is absolutely wonderful!" She gestured to the countless signs and balloons that now adorned every inch of the town, celebrating the upcoming event.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss" Ruby noticed. "It's kinda weirding me out."

"How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances, parades, a tournament! Oh the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!" Weiss explained.

"You really know how to make a good thing and make it sound boring" Yang said crossing her arms as Tyran laughed loudly.

"Quiet you two!" Weiss ordered angrily.

"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?" Yang questioned.

"Ugh, they smell like fish" Ruby observed as she pinched her nose.

"I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today!" Weiss explained. "And as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom."

"I'm sensing an ulterior motive" Tyran said.

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament" Blake answered.

"Ugh! You can't prove that!" Weiss huffed.

"Isn't that like cheating though?" Sunny asked scratching her head.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Weiss replied turning her nose up.

"Whoa" Ruby said as she noticed a building nearby that was currently covered in police tape. The group made their way over to the area where two detectives were currently investigating the scene, writing notes and such.

"What happened here?" Ruby inquired.

"Robbery. Second dust shop to be hit this week" one of the detectives answered. "This place is turning into a jungle."

"That terrible" Yang said with a sigh.

"They left all the money again" stated the other detective.

"Yeahhh, it just doesn't make a lick of sense" said the other. "Who needs that much dust?"

"I don't know, know what I mean?"

"You thinkin' the, uhhh, White Fang?"

"Yeah I'm thinkin' we don't get paid enough."

"Hmph, the White Fang, what an awful bunch of degenerates" Weiss declared.

"What's your problem?" Blake said turning to her.

"My problem?! I simply don't care for the criminally insane" Weiss countered.

"The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths" Blake defended. "They're a collection of misguided faunus."

"Misguided?! They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!"

"So then they're _very_ misguided! Either way it doesn't explain why they would rob a dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!"

"Hmm, Blake's got a point" Ruby said. "Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago, maybe it was him?"

"That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum! Those faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal!" Weiss continued.

Tyran shifted his weight awkwardly, not sure how to act in the situation. His eyes suddenly widened as he whispered. "White Fang…." Before promptly running off down the street.

"Tyran!" Sunny shouted as she reached out.

"Now look what you've done Weiss!" Yang accused.

"What?! I wasn't talking about all faunus! Just the White Fang! But my point still stands" Weiss defended.

"That's not necessarily true" Yang replied.

Suddenly a new voice shouted out from the docks, causing the group to rush back over. "Hey! Stop that faunus!" two sailors shouted.

A young monkey faunus with spiky blonde hair jumped off the boat that had just docked recently.

"Thanks for the ride guys!" He taunted as he ran down the docks away from the ship.

"You no good stowaway!" Shouted back one of the ship's crew.

The boy jumped up to a lamppost nearby and hung from his tail as he peeled a banana. "Hey, a no good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" A rock was suddenly thrown at the boy who dodged it as the two detectives from the dust shop walked over to him.

"Hey get down from there this instant" ordered one of the detectives. His only response was a banana peel to the face. The detective growled in annoyance. The boy positioned himself atop the lamppost and laughed mockingly. Jumping from the lamp, he flipped through the air and landed far behind the detectives, only for them to immediately pursue him. He ran past the group and Sunny could've sworn she saw him wink at Blake as he passed by.

"Well Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes" Yang joked.

"Quick! We have to observe him!" Weiss shouted as she began to follow. The rest of Team RWBY followed her but Sunny stayed behind.

"Sunny? Are you coming?" Ruby said stopping and turning around.

"Uhhh, yeah, I'll catch up with you guys later" she answered. "I'm gonna go find Tyran."

"Okay! Good luck!" Ruby shouted back as she began to run away again.

Sunny sighed as she began walking the other direction. Where could he have gone? Back to Beacon? No…. She began to retrace their steps from when they first arrived. However, the intricate planning of the upcoming event made it difficult to navigate the town. After about a half an hour of wandering aimlessly, Sunny sat down and hung her head in shame.

'What happened?' She thought. 'He was just warming up to me- I mean us' She suddenly heard a man cough in front of her, attempting to get her attention. She looked up to see a man towering above her with a muscular build, slicked back dark red hair with a red goatee. He wore aviator sunglasses and a white buttoned up dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, red suspenders, and a straight red tie. He also had various scars across his face and to be honest, he was quite intimidating.

"Umm, may I help you?" Sunny asked uncertain.

"Well I noticed that you seem to be a little down" he replied. "Is something wrong Miss?"

"Well…I lost my, uhh, friend while walking around town and I'm looking for him." Sunny explained.

"And I take it that you haven't had much luck?" He guessed. Sunny nodded solemnly. "What do they look like?"

"Uhh, he's a wolf faunus, with purple hair-" Sunny began.

"And a purple jacket?" The stranger asked.

"Y-yeah! You've seen him?" She inquired.

The stranger nodded and smiled. "Purple hair is a little hard to miss" he joked.

"Did you see which way he went?" Sunny said standing up quickly.

"I did actually, here, follow me" The stranger beckoned.

Sunny happily followed. "I'm Sunny by the way!"

The man smirked and extended his hand "Sal."

Meanwhile….

Tyran walked out of the store known as Tukson's Book Trade. He had just finished asking Tukson some questions regarding White Fang activity. Unfortunately his investigation did not yield any results, as Tukson had left the organization.

He sighed as he began walking down the street, unsatisfied by his search He looked up to the evening sky, and noticed how long he had been there.

'I should head back to the group' Tyran thought. 'I hope I didn't worry them.' He then turned to see the corner to see Team RWBY with some girl he didn't recognize. However, Weiss and Blake were currently in a heated argument.

"Stop it!" Blake shouted.

"Stop what?" Weiss replied. "He clearly broke the law! Give him time, he'll probably join up with those other faunus in the White Fang!"

'Did I miss something?' he thought.

Blake clenched her fist. "Ugh! You ignorant little brat!"

"How dare you talk to me like that! I am your teammate!"

" _You_ are a judgmental little girl!"

"What in the world makes you say that?!"

'Maybe I can help' he thought and took a step forward but immediately stopped as he saw a paper plastered to the wall next to him. His eyes widened as he read it.

'Dog,' it read 'Are you missing something?'

Later….

"There's no such thing as pure evil!" Blake stated standing up from her bed in the Team RWBY dorm. They had to head back to the school and were unable to find either Tyran or Sunny. "Why do you think they hate humanity so much?! It's because of people like Cardin, people like you, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"

"People like _me_?!" Weiss defended.

"You're discriminatory!"

"I'm a victim!" Weiss said, immediately silencing the room. "You want to know _why_ I despise the White Fang? Why I don't _particularly_ trust the faunus? It's because they've been at war with my family for years….War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear, board members executed, an entire train car full of dust, stolen. And every day my father would come home furious. And that made for a very. Difficult. Childhood."

Ruby walked over to Weiss and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Weiss I-" she began.

"No!" Weiss said throwing Ruby's hand off her shoulder. "You want to know why I despise the White Fang?! It's because they're a bunch of liars! Thieves! And murderers!"

"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!" Blake shouted. Weiss took a step back at the sudden realization.

"I-I" Blake began but immediately rushed out of the room, leaving her team behind.

"Blake! Wait! Come back!" Ruby shouted, but to no avail. The room remained silent for what seemed like an eternity. That is, until Tyran suddenly burst into their room, completely out of breath.

"Guys!" he huffed. "We need your help! Sunny's been kidnapped..."


	13. Volume 1 Chapter 9

"Tyran?" Mika asked. "Tyran!"

"H-huh?" He replied, snapping out of his train of thought.

"I asked where the last place you saw Sunny was" Mika informed.

They had been walking around downtown Vale for a couple hours now, starting the first thing in the morning.

"I-I don't know, by a dust shop I guess?" Tyran said softly.

"You know what I don't know?" Cye inquired leaning against the wall of a nearby building. "I don't know why we can't go to Ozpin about this. I mean, this is pretty serious."

"Probably cause either 'A' Tyran and team RWBY will get blamed or 'B' we'll get blamed for it. She's our teammate, now are you going to help or not?" Mika threatened as she rolled up her sleeve.

"Jeez, yeah, I know" Cye answered, putting his hands up in a defensive manner. "It's just we don't really have a lot to go off of. Maybe if _someone_ had remembered…."

"Hey knock it off, it's not Tyran's fault" Mika ordered.

"No…." Tyran said holding his heads in his hands. "H-He's right. I lost her…. I was just too absorbed in trying to prove myself. It's all my fault…."

"No it's not!" Mika shouted as she walked over to the sulking teenager. "There's no way you could've ever known!"

"B-but I-" Tyran began but was cut off as Mika clocked him in the face.

"Are you just going to sit here and feel sorry for yourself?! Or are you actually going to help look for our teammate?!" Mika demanded.

Tyran held his face, obviously shocked at the sudden blow. "You're right, let's find her!" he stated.

"You know, it's kinda funny." Cye chuckled. "Both we and team RWBY have missing members."

Mika punched him the arm. "Hey!" He whined.

"It's not funny, this is serious" she replied.

The team continued their search all day, but still no luck. The sky turned a brilliant mix of orange and purple, signaling that night was approaching quickly.

"We should just head back" Cye suggested stretching his arms, tired from the long day. "We can try again tomorrow."

"We're not leaving" Tyran said. "Not 'till we find her."

"The only place we haven't checked yet are the docks. We should try there" Mika said.

And onto the docks they traveled. But their search there proved uneventful, still lacking a teammate.

The docks contained countless shipping crates of dust, decorated with the Schnee family logo. The group walked through rows and rows of crates, but no sign of Sunny. Tyran looked over to Cye who looked a little uneasy. He stepped lightly, his eyes shifted constantly, and his hands rested on his knives.

"Something wrong Cye?" Tyran asked.

"What? Me? Nah!" he replied quickly. "I-I'm good, just a little-"

"Guys look!" Mika shouted pointing to something on the ground a couple yards in front of them. She ran over and picked up the object and turned around. It was Sunny's white scarf, now tainted by the dust and dirt of the docks. A wave of relief washed over him. Finally! A lead!

Tyran ran quickly over to her as she handed the scarf to him. He held it close to his heart "She's gotta be close" he whispered. The team continued through walking down the row of crates until they suddenly heard a thud come from one of the nearby crates.

Mika and Cye looked at each other quizzically, but Tyran had already rushed towards where the noise had come from. Tyran found the crate, and noticed that a large metal lock had been placed on the doors. Slamming his tonfas together, he pulled out his double-barreled shotgun. Covering his eyes, he pulled the trigger, causing shrapnel to fly everywhere. The door was now left unprotected and he immediately pulled the doors open with all his strength.

Light leaked into the pitch black inside of the crate. Inside, he saw Sunny asleep and tied to a chair that had been knocked over, most likely the cause of the sound. Tyran ran to her and immediately untied her, but she was still unconscious.

"Sunny" Tyran said softly as he held her in his arms. "Sunny!"

Sunny's eyes opened slowly and it was clear that she was still not entirely present. Her eyes suddenly shot open. "Tyran?" She said happily and quickly embraced him.

"Ahem" Cye coughed breaking up the moment. He and Mika now stood in the doorway of the crate. Tyran and Sunny quickly let go of each other, and looked away, avoiding eye contact.

"What in Remnant's name happened to you Sunny?!" Mika asked as she helped up her teammate.

"I'm not exactly sure, the details are kinda fuzzy" Sunny answered rubbing her head. "Let's see, I remember going to look for Tyran. Then I remember some man asking me why I was sad. He said he saw Tyran earlier and he led me to the docks. Then we went into some abandoned warehouse….

"Anything else?" Mika wondered.

"…Yeah, someone grabbed me from behind and I remember feeling some kind of prick in my neck"

"He must have injected you with something to put you to sleep." Tyran explained. "But why?"

"I don't know" Sunny replied feeling her neck for a puncture wound.

Suddenly, a deafening explosion was heard nearby them. The team ran out of the crate to see a smoke cloud emanating from nearby.

"What was that?!" Cye exclaimed.

"I don't know, but we should check it out." Mika said pulling out her weapon. "You good to go Sunny?" Sunny replied with a thumbs up as she pulled out her lance as well. Tyran smiled as he was glad to have his friend back. He then looked up at the endless crates, and saw a shadowy figure gazing down at them. The rest of the team began running towards the explosion but Tyran stayed behind.

"Tyran? You coming" Mika inquired, stopping in her tracks.

"Y-yeah, just give me a minute, I'll catch up with you guys later" Tyran answered.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure" he replied giving a thumbs up.

"…Alright…."she said reluctantly. The rest of team MSTC left to go towards the area where the explosion occurred. Tyran looked up to where the shadowy figure was standing, staring at him. It suddenly took off, jumping over crates and other obstacles.

Tyran immediately followed. "Stop!" he ordered. He climbed up to the same level as the stranger, atop several crates and continued the pursuit. The figure attempted to delay or stop Tyran as they attempted to throw or knock over smaller nearby boxes and crates. Tyran avoided the obstacles and continued to follow the figure all the way into an abandoned warehouse.

The figure stopped in the middle of the building, as a light shined down upon them. Tyran slowed his pace and carefully walked closer. The stranger turned around to reveal themselves, which shocked Tyran.

"Sal…." He breathed, unmoving from his position. How was he alive? This didn't make any sense.

Sal merely returned a wicked smirk, one that Tyran had been accustomed to before. One that he had grown to hate.

"Wh-What…."Tyran managed to say.

"Surprised to see me boy?" Sal taunted. "It doesn't matter who's alive or not, all that matters is that we've got big plans for Remnant. Now why don't you be a good dog, and **fetch**!"

Sal immediately hurled his axe directly at Tyran who was forced to jump to the side for shelter behind a shelf of crates. The axe made a *thunk* as it stuck into the wall of the warehouse. Tyran promptly jumped out from the shelf, knowing that he was no longer in danger of the axe, but the warehouse was now completely empty. Sal had disappeared.

Tyran cursed himself for not being more careful and for not capturing Sal. 'What was that about?' he questioned but suddenly heard another explosion nearby. 'I need to rendezvous with everyone else' he thought before running off towards the source of the sound.

By the time Tyran had met up with the rest of the team, the authorities had already arrived and both teams RWBY and MSTC were sitting down resting. Tyran looked over to his teammates. Cye seemed to be nursing a head injury with an ice pack, Mika was brushing the dust off of her, and Sunny was simply beaming.

"What happened here?" Tyran asked, concerned for everyone.

"You won't believe it!" Sunny squealed. "It was so cool! There were some White Fang bad guys and some big criminal guy, but they were no match for us! We just stopped a huge crime syndicate!"

Tyran smiled at her enthusiasm, but was still concerned about the order in team RWBY after Weiss and Blake's "disagreement". But everything seemed to have worked out, as he heard no obnoxious remarks about faunus, and they were even, smiling? That was weird. However, there was a new guy in the group. A monkey faunus with spiked blonde hair. Tyran intended to go introduce himself but stopped as Cye spoke.

"And where were you?" Cye asked slightly annoyed.

"Yeah, what happened?" Mika added.

"Oh, uhh, it was nothing!" Tyran replied weakly laughing. "My, uhh, shoe was untied haha"

"Hmph" Mika huffed in response.

Later….

The team made it back to Beacon and began to walk in their dorms before Mika quickly grabbed Tyran by the collar of his jacket and shoved him against the wall.

"Whoa!" He exclaimed putting his hands up defensively.

"Alright! What really happened?!" Mika demanded. "We're not idiots!"

"Yeah!" Cye added loudly, ecstatic that it wasn't him feeling Mika's wrath.

Tyran sighed. "Well, I supposed you could say I met a ghost from my past."

Mika let go of his collar while the rest of the team gathered around him, listening intently. "I made an enemy several months ago. A powerful enemy who was against faunus rights. We fought three times. The first time, I was saved by a now ex member of the White Fang. The second time, I lost terribly, and he threatened my family. The third time…I…." Tyran trailed off.

"You what?" Sunny asked softly, almost whispering.

"….I thought….I thought I stopped him for good." Tyran explained hesitantly. The room was dead silent, not a single sound could be heard. "But I met him again tonight….He said he had plans for Remnant. Now if anything happens to anyone it's going to be my fault! I didn't stop him!" Tyran cried as he held his head in his hands.

Sunny embraced the depressed teen. She pet his ears, hoping that that would provide some sort of comfort.

"At least you felt safe for a time…." Cye said quietly.

"What?" Tyran said.

"I've made enemies too" Cye explained. "Powerful ones, except I lost my fight. I'm in debt for so much lien, I could buy an army's worth of airships. You think I want to be a hunter?! Of course not! This is the only place safe from them! Except for Weiss…."

"You're running from the Schnee family?" Tyran inquired.

Cye nodded solemnly in response. "That's just one of them though."

"That's why you've been avoiding Weiss as much as possible? Is that why you didn't go with us downtown the other day?" Sunny asked.

Cye nodded again, but Mika starting chuckling. "Are my problems funny to you?!" He shouted.

Mika stopped and looked over to him. "It's just that, Weiss has no idea who you are! Haha!"

"Wh-What do you mean?" Cye questioned.

"She doesn't have a clue who you are. You think she pays attention to everyone in debt to the Schnees? She's a student like us, with better things to worry about" Mika explained. Cye breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Well guys, I think we've had enough excitement for today" Sunny said walking over to her bed. "We can always worry about this later!"

Tyran smiled as he wiped his eyes. "I agree, I'm exhausted" he added as he laid in his bed. Completely worn out, from the events that just transpired. He closed his eyes as sleep quickly overtook him.

-Volume 1 Complete-

Meanwhile….

Roman Torchwick walked through an empty warehouse placing his cane against a table and sighing.

"These kids, I tell ya" he said to himself.

"Preaching to the choir buddy" came an unkown female voice. Roman quickly turned around to reveal three figures. The girl who spoke had a purple mohawk and piercing blue eyes. She wore a light gray shirt with a tattered vest around it. She also wore faded and ripped pants.

The second, a man with a very thin frame who held a cane in his hand and walked with a limp. He wore black sunglasses and had short shaggy black hair that reached his chin. He also wore a gray sweater-vest over a black button up shirt and grey slacks.

The last, a muscular man with dark red hair that was slicked back, and a red goatee. He wore sunglasses, a white buttoned up dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, red suspenders, and a straight red tie.

"Oh great" Roman replied sarcastically. "Just the group I wanted to see: Violet the condescending, Charles the obedient, and Salvador the narrow-minded."

Sal clenched his fists. "Listen here Torchwi-" he began. But stopped as Vi held her hand up to cut him off.

"You know" She said placing her hands back on her hips. "There's still an opening for you."

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass" Roman snapped. "I've got better things to do than play scientist."

"He's right" came a new voice. "Very important things." A new man walked through the group as they parted to let him pass. He strolled over to Roman and placed a hand on his shoulder. He was a tall middle-aged man, with a slim build. He had short textured green hair and slim features with high cheekbones. He wore a white lab coat over a lime green button up shirt.

Roman gulped "U-Um, I didn't expect to see you here Sirriam."

"You know Roman" he said looking at Roman directly in the eyes. "I feel sorry for you…." He then promptly snapped his fingers, causing his group to immediately straighten up and look forward.

"Let's go" Sirriam ordered. He turned around to Roman and gave a two fingered wave "It was nice speaking with you. If you need some help, just holler."

The group exited the warehouse, Sirriam in front, with the rest around him like some sort of armed guard. On their way out, they passed some familiar faces. A woman with long black hair, dressed in a short red dress, a boy with silver hair and a blue and black jacket, and lastly a girl with light green hair, wearing a green and white halter top.

The groups exchanged gazes, but no words were spoken between them. They continued their walk down the streets of Vale.

Sirriam chuckled to himself. "Let's hope Remnant is ready for the future…."


	14. Extra Story

Hey guys, so quick author's note here. Some things have come up in recently in my life and I've had a lot less time to write than before. As a result, I don't know if I can continue updating every Sunday. I apologize, but I'd appreciate it, if you guys would stay patient. Thank you so much for taking time and reading my story by the way. Below, you will find a fun little extra story that I just wanted to add, that focuses on Team MSTC's days at Beacon. I hope you guys enjoy!

-CaptainQuackBeard

Sunny yawned loudly as she stretched, greeting the new day. Gazing over to her teammates, she noticed that one was surprisingly missing. Mika Sol. Sunny turned back to the rest of her team to see Tyran sleeping in another uncomfortable-looking position, perpendicular to the actual bed. On the other hand, Cye was already awake and dressed, writing in a book. Noticing that Sunny was awake, he quickly put it away.

"Where's Mika?" Sunny questioned.

"She, uhh, had the early morning shift" Cye responded, yawning. "at the café."

"Ohhh, gotcha" replied Sunny getting out of bed. She then made her bed so that it looked brand new and walked over to the bathroom. After finishing her morning duties, she walked out of the bathroom to see Cye opening the door to leave their room.

"Where're you going?" she asked.

"I just got some errands to run downtown, gonna be gone for most of the day" he answered with a smile.

"Oh, do you want me to come with you?" Sunny offered. "I don't have much going on today."

"Nah it's cool" Cye said as he began to walk out. "it's gonna be boring, just have to buy some junk like deodorant and hair gel"

"Oh" Sunny said quietly as Cye had already left. "Alright." Suddenly her scroll began ringing loudly, causing Tyran to stir awake. She pulled out the device and answered the call. It connected to reveal her mother smiling and waving.

"Mom?!" Sunny asked in disbelief.

Her mother paused for a moment, evident that there was a bit of a lag due to connection strength. "Hey Sunny! How's Beacon?" her mother inquired.

"Oh it's great! I love it here!" Sunny stated jubilantly. "I've made a lot of friends, and even had some adventure!" Sunny stopped immediately after saying that. 'Maybe I shouldn't mention that I was kidnapped...' she thought.

"Is that so?" her mother inquired. Suddenly the camera jerked quickly to the side, and Sunny saw her father, now in view. "That's great to hear Sunny, we'll be by in a couple hours"

"What?!" Sunny screamed causing Tyran to nearly jump out of his skin.

"Can't loving parents visit their only daughter" her father joked.

Sunny nervously played with her scarf and put on a weak smile. "Uhh, no it's all cool, can't wait to see you guys!" The camera once again jerked to the side and Sunny now saw her mother. "We can't wait to meet your partner! See you in a couple hours!"

"Yeah, sure, no problem" Sunny replied quickly and then promptly ended the call and flopped back down on her bed and buried her face in her pillow.

"What's up?" Tyran inquired standing up. Sunny slowly raised her head from the pillow and looked up at him.

"My parents are coming" she whispered softly.

"Soooo, what's wrong?" Tyran wondered.

"Have you met my father?!" Sunny suddenly exclaimed. "My partner needs to be the _perfect hunter_ " she continued sarcastically.

"Speaking of _perfect hunter_ , where is Cye?" he said.

"Cye left to go do some stuff in town" Sunny answered disappointedly and hung her head in shame. After a brief moment of silence, she slowly raised her head, looking at Tyran.

"You need to pretend to be my partner" she stated quietly.

"What? Why would I do that? Cye's your partner!" Tyran objected.

"Tyran please! If my partner isn't up to my father's standards, he'll take me out of Beacon!" Sunny pleaded.

Tyran let out a long sigh. "Alright."

Later….

Within a couple hours, Sunny heard a knock on their door. She flinched, as she was wary of the upcoming day with her parents. Slowly, she made her way over to the door and opened it slowly.

"So you guys were hunters before? I bet you have tons of cool stories!" Ruby said as Sunny opened the door. Ruby was speaking with her parents who seemed to really like the girl. "Oh hey Sunny, I was just showing your parents your dorm! It was nice speaking with you two" Ruby said waving goodbye and walking next door to the team RWBY dorm. Sunny weakly smiled as she let her parents into the room. Sunny's mother maneuvered her wheelchair over to a corner out of the way, and her father scratched his chin, scrutinizing every inch of the room. He moved over to the four beds, three of which were made proper and cleanly, while one was not so much. Sheets were thrown in disarray with clothes strewn about the area.

"And who's sleeping quarters are those?" he inquired pointing at the odd one out.

"Oh! That one? That's my teammate's, Cye." Sunny answered quickly still maintaining her smile.

"Teammate huh?" her father scoffed. "Alright then, who is your partner?"

"Right, hey Tyran!" Sunny called. From another room emerged Tyran with an equally nervous grin.

"Hello, my name is Tyran Viska, it's nice to meet you" Tyran greeted shaking Sunny's parents' hands.

"So what's this Cye fellow like?" her father inquired. "He seems like a complete mess."

"Well, he is somewhat of a wreck, but Sunny does her best to improve and motivate him to always do better" Tyran explained.

"That's our Sunny, always thinking of others" her mother praised. Sunny nervously fidgeted with her scarf.

"So Tyran, tell us about yourself" her father said.

"Well, I was a very active faunus rights activis-" Tyran began but was quickly interrupted by Sunny.

"He was a student at, umm, Sanctum Academy and came to Beacon afterwards" Sunny interjected loudly.

"But, uhh, I didn't attend any comba-" he said, but again was stopped.

"Graduated the top of his class actually!" Sunny said nearly shouting.

"Oh you're from Mistral? How interesting, what made you want to come to Beacon?" Sunny's mother inquired.

"Oh, well, you know…uhhh…Beacon's very prestigious and respectable" Tyran stuttered out.

"You're darn right it is!" Sunny's father said heartily clapping Tyran on the back. "We graduated here ourselves a long time ago!"

"Yes father, I'm sure Tyran will want to hear all of your stories, but we should, uhh, give you guys a tour!" Sunny said quickly shoving her parents out the door and slamming it shut. "We just have to get some things real quick!" Sunny shouted, making sure they heard her through the door. She turned around quickly to see Tyran with his arms crossed in disappointment.

"I know! I'm so sorry!" Sunny apologized.

"I didn't know I was Pyrrha!" Tyran whispered harshly so her parents would not hear.

"I'm sorry, but you've just gotta keep this up until they leave!" Sunny pleaded. "Just a couple more hours please!"

Tyran sighed and rubbed his temples. "Yeah, sure, whatever" he said finally.

"You're the best!" Sunny said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door.

One campus tour later….

The tour lasted most of the day and afternoon. The sky was now turning a brilliant orange, signifying the nearing of the end of the day.

"Well thank you two so much!" Sunny's mother said smiling.

"Anytime!" Sunny said happily.

"You know" her father began. "I originally wasn't so sure about the partnership between you two would work. But now I am certain, that you are perfect for one another and you'll both accomplish great things."

"Th-Thank you very much Mr. Keusik" Tyran said with a nervous smile, which quickly faded as Sunny let out a long sigh.

"I can't do this anymore…." Sunny muttered and hung her head. "I haven't been honest with you guys and I'm sorry. Tyran is not my partner, Cye is. I just asked Tyran to pretend to be my partner, it's not his fault."

"But why would you lie to us?" her mother inquired.

"Because, I was afraid" Sunny answered. "I was afraid you guys would take me out of Beacon if my partner didn't fit your standards." Sunny shut her eyes tightly, ready for the onslaught of anger that was about to rain down upon her. But instead, she felt a hand placed on her shoulder. She looked up to see her father looking back and smiling.

"Sunny" he said. "We know you will do your best regardless of who your partner is, and I still believe you two can accomplish great things." Sunny's face lit up and she embraced her parents tightly.

Later….

'Well today was interesting' Tyran thought as he laid in his bed, reflecting on the day's events. 'But I guess things turned out for the better.'

He smiled at Sunny's jubilance with her parents whom she had left to go and say goodbye. The door suddenly opened to reveal Sunny, still maintaining her grin. Tyran gave a small wave, which caused her smile to fade.

"Listen Tyran" she said walking over to him. "I'm really sorry for making you lie to my parents like that. It wasn't right of me to ask that of you."

"It's fine" Tyran said giving her a small smile. "I'm always ready to help a friend." His comment made Sunny immediately beam and embrace Tyran in a tight hug.

Meanwhile….

"Seeya later boss" Mika said as she waved to her employer. She had taken the early morning shift at the café, which allowed her leave earlier than most.

"Bye Mika!" called her boss. Mika walked out into the bright afternoon sun. Dusting her waist apron off and adjusting her bow tie, she began to make her way back to Beacon. That is, until she spied a familiar face across the street. Shading her eyes from the sun with her hand, she squinted to see who it was exactly. Across the street, she saw Cye speaking to three other girls who did not seem amused or entertained by him. He used his signature smirk, one that Mika had come to despise. They scoffed at him and walked away.

'Ugh' Mika thought. 'I don't blame them.' She saw Cye reach out and call to them, but they ignored him. Cye then walked the other direction and walked into a nearby store.

'What is he doing?' Mika thought as she leaned against a building, curious at what he would emerge with. After a few minutes, Cye walked out of the building with a bouquet of flowers.

'You've got to be kidding me' Mika thought, squeezing her white rabbit ears, cringing at what his next move would be. Another girl walked past him and knowing Cye, he could not resist. Mika noted that his body language was quite odd and obscene. The girl, like the ones before, scoffed and kept walking. Cye sneered at her, obviously thinking that it was her loss. He then began to walk down the street in the opposite direction, still holding the flowers in his hand.

'Is he really this desperate?!...Well, I don't have much going on today…' she thought as she followed him around a corner. Mika stayed several feet behind him, hiding behind various lampposts and in alleys to avoid his gaze if he were to turn around. After a couple minutes of walking, she watched him walk into an open grassy area surrounded by a brick wall.

'Ugh, a park' she thought. 'Is he going to try and pick up girls here too?' Mika ran over to one of the brick walls and leaned against it to make sure that she could not be seen. She could hear him muttering something, but it was inaudible. In an attempt to hear better, Mika hoisted herself up on the brick wall to peer over it. To her surprise, it was not a park, but a cemetery.

Cye kneeled in front of one particular grave, where he had placed the flowers he purchased, in front of. Squinting, Mika could somewhat make out the engravings on the grave. It read: "Celeste Lureri Loving Wife and Mother" She now heard Cye's voice becoming quieter as his words turned into soft cries. She saw him hold his head in his hands and his body shudder.

Mika lowered herself off of the brick wall and walked into the opening of the cemetery. She quietly made her way over to Cye who had noticed her presence. Carefully and softly, she placed her hand on his shoulder. He quickly jumped to his feet, as he previously thought that he was alone. He stared back at Mika, shocked, with his red eyes stained with tears and hair in a mess. Quickly, he wiped his eyes with his sleeve and fixed his hair. She gave him a small, understanding smile, as they both walked out of the cemetery together.

Not a word was spoken until they were about halfway on their journey back to Beacon."If you ever want to talk, I'm here, and so is the rest of team MSTC" Mika said, finally breaking the silence.

Cye laughed weakly. "You sound like my mother…." Together, they traveled back to Beacon and eventually their dorm. Opening the door, Mika revealed Sunny embracing Tyran and then planted a quick kiss on his cheek, causing him to blush profusely.

"Ahem" Mika said as she walked into the dorm with Cye. Sunny and Tyran quickly pulled apart, both of them red-faced. Cye roared with laughter at their embarrassment, causing Mika to chuckle as well.


	15. Volume 2 Chapter 1

Hey I'm not dead! I was able to write another chapter, however I don't know when the next one will be. Apologies.

-CaptainQuackBeard

'Ugh, another semester' Cye thought as he bit into his sandwich. He and the rest of Team MSTC were currently in the cafeteria of Beacon Academy, sitting next to Team RWBY and across from Team JNPR.

Cye gazed over to the rest of his team. Sunny and Tyran were happily discussing the upcoming semester and the Vytal Festival, which Sunny was simply ecstatic for. Sunny and Tyran had become increasingly closer since last semester. It was kind of weird to be honest. The farthest from Cye, sat Mika who was absent-mindedly rolling around vegetables with her fork. Her white rabbit ears drooped in a depressed fashion, a sign that she wasn't feeling too well.

Ruby suddenly walked over to their table and slammed a comically large binder on the table, causing the entire thing to shudder.

"Ahem" Ruby said, getting everyone's attention. "Sisters! Friends! Weiss!"

"Hey!" Weiss protested.

"Four score and seven minutes ago I had a dream!"

"This outta be good" Yang said turning to everyone else, just as she caught another grape from Nora, who had been flinging food across the table for the past ten minutes.

"A dream that one day, the four of us would come together, _as a team_ " Ruby continued. "And have the most fun anyone has ever had! Ever!"

"Did you steal my binder?" Weiss inquired.

"I am not a crook" Ruby defended.

"Sounds like fun!" Sunny replied with a smile. "Mind if we join in?"

"The more the merrier!" Ruby answered with a thumbs up.

"What are you talking about?" Blake asked.

"I'm talking about kicking the semester off with a bang!" Ruby responded.

"I always kick my semesters off, _with a Yang"_ Yang joked. She turned to everyone else for some sort of response. "Eh? Guys? Amirite?"

"Boo!" shouted Nora as she threw an apple at Yang, hitting her in the forehead.

"I agree with Nora" Cye said solemnly.

"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks, and between more exchange students arriving, and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester's gonna be great!" Ruby said getting back to the topic at hand. "But, classes start back up tomorrow. Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us today!"

"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store" Weiss replied curtly. At the same time, Yang retaliated at Nora by throwing another apple back at her.

"I don't know…I think I might sit this one out…." Blake said apathetically.

"C'mon Blake it'll be fun!" Tyran encouraged.

"I for one, think that-" Weiss said as she began to stand up but was immediately cut off as a pie made direct contact with her face. Everyone immediately looked over to the JNPR table to see an embarrassed Nora trying to pin the blame on Ren.

Weiss wiped the cream off of her face slowly before picking up a plate of salad and throwing it at Nora. Everyone in the cafeteria could see what was going to happen next.

"FOOD FIGHT!" shouted a random nearby student.

"We gotta get out of here!" cried Cye grabbing his teammates and pulling them towards the door. Team MSTC ran to the doors of the cafeteria, getting pelted by foods of various size and consistency. Cye grabbed the door handle and pushed to open the door, but it did not open.

"What?! Why're the doors locked?!" exclaimed Mika.

Tyran grabbed Cye's shoulders and looked him directly in the eyes. "Cye…." He said. "You have to teleport us outside…."

Cye nodded slowly, realizing his future. The rest of the team held onto him, except Mika. "Mika, c'mon! We have to leave!"

Mika turned around with a small smile. "You guys go ahead. I'll hold them off" She said picking up a baguette and running towards the middle of the war.

A single tear fell down Tyran's face. "A true Remnant hero…." He said as they dematerialized and reappeared on the other side of the wall.

"Whoa!" exclaimed a blonde faunus boy with spiky hair. Cye immediately recognized him as the guy who fought with them against Roman Torchwick and the White Fang last semester.

"Where'd you guys come from?" asked the boy.

"Wait you're the guy from the docks that one night right?" asked Sunny recognizing him as well.

"Oh, yeah! Name's Sun, and this is Neptune" Sun answered gesturing to an equally shocked boy with blue hair and a red jacket.

"Nice to meet you Sun!" Sunny replied and extending her hand. "My name is Sun _ny,_ and this is Tyran and Cye."

They each gave a small wave to each other.

"Have you guys seen Blake? We've been looking all around for her." Sun inquired.

"She's in there" Tyran said pointing to the cafeteria. "But I don't think that you shou-"

"Thanks! Seeya guys later!" Sun said waving.

Just as the doors opened to the cafeteria, Cye could hear the screams and splats of people and food, hopefully in that order.

"Ohhhh, it was a pull door, not push" Sunny chuckled. Suddenly, Mika flew through the window, shattering it completely and slammed into a nearby pillar.

"Oomph!" She exclaimed as she peeled away from the pillar like old paint. She flat on the ground as Tyran ran over and helped her up.

Cye looked back over to the war zone, also known as the cafeteria, and noticed Professor Goodwitch, Professor Ozpin, and an unknown man walking towards it. Glynda looked absolutely livid, while Ozpin had small smile around his face. The third man kept a straight face, seeming apathetic. He was a tall middle-aged man, with a slim build. The stranger had short textured green hair and slim features with high cheekbones. He wore a white lab coat over a lime green button up shirt. The trio burst through the doors of the cafeteria.

"Who's that?" Sunny asked pointing at the stranger.

"Dunno, new teacher?" Cye answered scratching his head. Suddenly, it seemed like the previous sounds of war had ceased. No more plates shattering, food splattering, and walls cracking. The group exchanged quizzical glances. Silently and carefully, they made their way over to the door, and slowly opened it.

"Children please. Do not play with your food" Glynda ordered as she adjusted her glasses. All of a sudden Yang came crashing through the roof and slammed into a table, destroying it. The teams laughed as Ozpin walked over to Glynda and put his hand of her shoulder. Cye could not make out what he told her, but it left her flustered. The unknown man gave a small smile, amused by the situation. Cye looked over to the side of the cafeteria to see an annoyed Neptune completely covered in food.

"I told you not to go in there" Tyran informed, as Neptune returned an angry look.

Later in the library….

"Mika Sol and Yang Xiao Long prepare your kingdom for battle!" announced Ruby confidently.

"Bring it on!" Yang replied.

"Let's go!" Mika added.

The teams were currently sitting around a large table in the school's library. They had decided to play a rousing game of Remnant: The Game. Teams were then decided as Ruby and Sunny, Weiss and Cye, Blake and Tyran, and Yang and Mika.

"I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" Ruby said triumphantly standing in her chair.

Yang gasped at Ruby's move. Mika turned to Yang and whispered to her "I don't know what that means…."

"Looks like we get to fly right over your ursi and attack your walls directly!" Ruby explained. She then imitated planes flying through the air and then high fived Sunny who looked at her with pride.

"Teach me your ways master" Sunny marveled.

Yang gasped again "You fiend!"

"How dare you!" Mika added again.

"And since Atlas is part of Mantle, our repair time only lasts _one_ turn" continued Ruby.

"Hahaha" Yang mocked. "Pretty sneaky sis, but you just activated our trap card!"

"Whaa!" Ruby and Sunny said in unison.

"Giant Nevermore!" Yang announced slamming the board with her fist.

"Yeah! That's good right?" Mika asked.

"If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!" Yang explained.

"But! If you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces!" Ruby countered.

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take!" Yang seethed.

"Wait! Is it worth it Yang?! Atlas must survive!" Mika inquired with a frightened tone.

Yang simply smirked at Mika before throwing the dice. It skittered across the board and landed as a seven.

"Noooooooooooo!" screamed Ruby in defeat.

"Whyyyyyyyy?!" Sunny added.

"Well, Cye, Weiss, it's your guys' turn!" Yang informed happily.

"I have…absolutely no idea what's going on" Weiss stated in confusion.

"Are we supposed to attack Vacuo?" Cye asked.

"Considering that you're playing as Vacuo, that's probably not a good idea" Yang explained. "Besides, all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus!"

"That sounds dumb" Weiss complained.

"See you've got sandstorm, desert scavenge, and oh oh! Resourceful raider!" Yang noticed while shuffling the cards around rapidly. "See now you can take Ruby and Sunny's discarded air fleet and put it in _your_ hand!"

"Okayyy" Weiss replied, finally catching on.

"I still don't get it, is that good?" Cye asked still completely lost.

"And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance boost against natural hazards, you can use sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" Yang continued. "Just know, that I will not forget this declaration of war."

"And that means?" Weiss inquired.

"You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant" Ruby cried.

"Ahahahahah! Yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces, cower as they pillage your homes, and weep as they take your children from your very arms!" Weiss announced confidently.

"So are we conquering Vacuo or not?" Cye questioned impatiently.

"Trap card" Yang stated bluntly holding up a single playing card.

"Huh?" Weiss asked perplexed.

Yang immediately shuffled the game pieces around at lightning speed. "Your armies have been destroyed" she stated proudly.

"Aww yeah!" Mika shouted high fiving Yang.

"I hate this game of emotions we play!" whined Weiss.

"Stay strong Weiss, we'll make it through this together" Ruby said jumping into her arms.

"It's not fair!" Sunny complained as she ran over to join in on the group hug.

"Shut up! Don't touch me!" Weiss cried as she embraced them all.

"I'm starting to think we're not doing as good as I think we are" Cye said scratching his head.

"Alright Blake and Tyran! You guys are up" Yang said leaning back in her chair.

"Oh! Huh?" Blake asked, suddenly startled as she was not paying attention before. "Uhh, sorry what are we doing?"

"We are Vale!" Tyran announced. "And we must conquer the other kingdoms or Remnant!"

"Hey" Jaune said walking over to their table. "Can I play?"

"Sorry Jaune we've already got eight people" Ruby apologized.

"Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt you possess" Weiss insulted.

"Uhh, you guys attacked your own naval fleet two turns ago" Yang informed.

"So I was right when we said we're supposed to attack Vacuo!" Cye shouted as if it were some sort of epiphany.

"Bring it on Ice Queen!" Jaune countered. "I'll have you know that I've been told I'm a natural born leader!"

"By who? Your mother?" inquired Weiss sarcastically.

"And Pyrrha!" he defended.

"Hello again!" Pyrrha waved from across the room.

"C'mon let me play your hand for a turn" Jaune begged.

"I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo!" Weiss said retreating from Jaune's grasp.

"But we have to conquer Vacuo! If he plays, then it'll be easier" Cye whispered to her harshly. Weiss simply rolled her eyes in response.

"Why not! You've trusted me with _way_ more important stuff before!" Jaune continued. "I mean you all told us that Blake is secretly a fa-"

"Fun loving person! Whom we all admire and respect!" interjected Pyrrha as she slapped her hand over Jaune's mouth to prevent him from continuing. Tyran chuckled as he too knew Blake's secret. It was almost like faunus intuition.

"Heh heh" Jaune said quietly, realizing his mistake. "Right, that! Ladies...and gentleman, enjoy your battle"

"Sup losers" came a new voice. The group turned to where it came from to see Sun smiling and walking over to their table.

"Hey Sun" greeted Ruby.

"Ruby, Yang, Blake, Sunny, Tyran," Sun took a huge breath to continue "Cye…Ice Queen…."

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?!" complained Weiss.

"I never got a chance to introduce you guys to my old friend!" Sun continued, ignoring her.

"Uhh, aren't libraries for reading?" Neptune asked stepping out from behind Sun.

"Thank you!" exclaimed Ren who woke a previously asleep Nora. She mumbled something about pancakes before quickly resuming her nap.

"Shut up don't be a nerd" Sun said turning to Neptune.

"Hey, hey, hey, intellectual! Okay? Thank you." Neptune corrected.

"I'm Neptune" he introduced.

"So Neptune, where're you from?" Weiss said taking an interest in Sun's friend.

"Haven" he answered. "And I don't believe I caught your name, Snow Angel"

"Umm, I'm Weiss" she responded happily.

"Are you kidding me?" Jaune complained.

"It's the blue hair man" Cye said placing a hand on his shoulder. Cye ran his hands through his parted blue hair. "It's works wonders on the ladies."

"Does it now?" Mika laughed.

"Pleasure to meet you" replied Neptune.

"I never took you as the board game playing type" Sun said turning to Blake.

"Right. Well, I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later." Blake said solemnly standing up and walking out of the library.

"But Blake, Vale needs us!" cried Tyran.

Sun merely shrugged at her response to which Nora replied. "Women."

Later in the Team RWBY dorm….

Blake sat alone on her bed, with her knees tucked to her chest. The rest of the team quickly burst into the room, discussing the recent game they just played. Blake got up and began to walk towards the door, but faltered as Weiss spoke.

"Stop!" Weiss commanded. "Lately you've been quiet, antisocial, and moody."

"Uhh, have you met Blake?" Yang interjected.

"Which I get, is kinda your _thing_ " Weiss continued. "But you've been doing it more than usual. Which, quite frankly, is unacceptable. You made a promise to me, to all of us, that you would let us know if something is wrong. So Blake Belladona! What! Is! Wrong?!" Weiss jumped into a chair and pointed down at Blake in a very over-the-top manner.

Blake sighed and closed her eyes. "I just, I don't understand how everyone can be so calm" she said.

"You're still thinking about Torchwick?" Ruby asked.

"Torchwick, the White Fang, all of it! Something big is happening and no one is doing anything about it." Blake replied.

"Ozpin told us not to worry, between the police and the huntsman, I'm sure they could handle it." Yang explained.

"Well I'm not! They don't _know_ the White Fang like I do" Blake snapped.

"Okay, between blowing up nightclubs, stopping thieves, and fighting for freedom, I'm sure the three of you think you're all ready to go out and apprehend these ne'er-do-wells." Weiss stated.

"Uhh who?" Ruby inquired.

"But let me once again be the voice of reason." Weiss continued, ignoring Ruby's question. "We're students! We're not ready to handle this sort of situation!"

"Heh, well yeah but-" Ruby began.

"We're not ready!" Weiss replied cutting her off.

"And we may never be ready!" exclaimed Blake. "Our enemies aren't just going to sit around and wait for graduation day. They're out there somewhere, planning their next move and none of us know what it is, but it's coming! Whether we're ready…or not."

The room fell silent, all of them thinking about Blake's words and the truth in them. "Okay" Ruby finally said raising her hand. "All in favor of becoming the youngest hunters to single handedly bring down a corrupt organization conspiring against the kingdom of Vale…say aye!"

"Yes!" Yang shouted. "I love it when you're feisty."

"Well, I suppose it could be fun" Weiss stated with her arms crossed.

"None of you said aye" Ruby sulked.

"Alright then" Blake said smiling. "We're in this together."

"Let's hatch a plan!" Ruby said jubilantly.

"Yeah!" Yang agreed.

Ruby suddenly gasped at a realization. "I left my board game in the library!"

"We're doomed" Weiss said rubbing her temples. Ruby dashed over the door and threw it open, only to have the four members of Team MSTC fall out.

"Uhhh, hey guys!" Cye said with a weak smile.


End file.
